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ACRED STREAMS; 



9 

OR THE 



ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY 



OF THE 

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JUtutfl nf tjje Sikh. 



BY 

PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 

EDITED BY GEORGE B. CHEEVER, D.D 

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Author of " Lectures on the Pilgrim's Progress," &c, &c. 



fEm&elltsfjeti fottf) JFtftg Illustrations from ©rtgtnal JBestgns, 

Engraved on Wood by J. W, Orr. 



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NEW YORK: 
* STRINGER & tOWNSEND, 222 BRC&DWAY. 



♦ 1852. ¥ " .• * 
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* 



131ft 

Mrs. Hennen Jennings * 
* t April 26, 1933 



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R. CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER, 
lljll FULTON STREET. 









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INTRODUCTION, 



BY REV. GEORGE B. CHEEVER, D.D. 



There is no little theology, as well as history, abiding by 
the sacred rivers ; whoever will trace them with care may 
be a very learned man ; and he who will drink of them, 
whenever he can, will be a man of life, as well as learning. 

The first river went out of Eden ; it was the river of 
Paradise, lost now, and as untraceable as the entrance to the 
garden. The last river brings us to God and the New 
Jerusalem ; it is the pure river of the water of life, clear as 
crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb. 
But the first river, like the first man, was of the earth 
earthy ; the last river, like the second man, is the Lord from 
heaven. 

But there is an intermediate river, the foretaste of the 
last, as the earnest of the Spirit is the foretaste of the 
heavenly inheritance. There is a river, the streams whereof 
shall make glad the city of our God, the holy place of the 
tabernacles of the Most High. Divine Truth and Grace 
constitute that river for the healing of th^nations. That 
was Ezekiel's vision of the holy waters, issuing from the 
Sanctuary. The angel shall take you by the hand, and 
bring you through them, and at first they shall only be up 



IV PREFACE. 

to the ankles. A thousand cubits more of heavenly 
experience shall be measured to you, and still they shall be 
only up to your knees. A thousand more shall be measured, 
and the angel shall bring you through, and still they shall 
be only up to the loins. But a thousand more, and it shall 
be a river that you cannot pass over ; " for the waters are 
risen, waters to swim in, that cannot be passed over." Hast 
thou seen this ? 

Behold, at the bank of the river are many trees, on the 
one side and on the other. And it shall come to pass that 
everything that liveth and moveth, whithersoever the river 
shall come, shall live. And by the river, upon the bank 
thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees 
for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit 
thereof be consumed. It shall bring forth new fruit, 
according to his months, because their waters issued out of 
the sanctuary ; and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and 
the leaf thereof for medicine. 

Hast thou seen this ? A man must come to Ezekiel's 
river in this world, and know from experience something of 
what is there taught by the Divine Spirit, if he would ever 
walk with angels beside the river of the water of life in 
glory, and have a right to the Tree of Life, to enter in 
through the gates into the city. He must take that leaf 
which is for medicine here, those waters which are for 
healing here, if he would eat of the fruit of that Tree which 
is Life, if he would drink of that crystal stream which is in 
heaven. There is health there, but no healing ; life there, 
but no disease ; a fountain of life, but no medicine. The 
time for medicine is here, the need of it is here, the use of it 



\ 



PREFACE. V 

must be here ; but only the result of it is there, in Life 
Everlasting. The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne 
shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains 
of waters. 

Thou shalt make them drink of the River of thy 
pleasures. This is spoken of those who put their trust 
under the shadow of God's wings. And it is said of a man 
having this trust, that he shall not only be as a tree planted 
by the river, with leaves always green, and never ceasing to 
yield fruit, but that he shall be Jiimself as a river of water 
in a dry place. He shall make others green, and whatever 
he doeth shall prosper. When the church of Christ, 
everywhere, is made up of such men, there will be no more 
dry places. Such men are as Artesian wells in the desert. 

Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures, 
for with thee is the fountain of life. It is an argument 
from the river to the fountain. They that drink of the 
river here, shall come to the fountain hereafter. They that 
drink of the river here, are never satisfied till they rise to the 
fountain. As the hart panteth after the water-brook, so 
panteth my soul after thee, O God ! When shall I come 
and appear before God ! There is this paradox connected 
with this truth, that the deeper experience a man has of this 
heavenly thirst, the happier he is, and yet the more 
unsatisfied. And the more unsatisfied, the nearer he is to 
the fountain. There are different kinds of unrest; the 
unrest of the sinner and that of the holy soul, like a dove. 
Each of them proves two different antagonistic worlds, 
fountain-worlds, eternal. Who among us, says the one, 
shall dwell with everlasting burnings ? But there, says the 



VI PREFACE. 

other, the glorious Lord will be to us a place of broad rivers 
and streams. And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick ; 
the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity. 

When this imagery from the Old Testament reappears in 
the New, it is as a stream that has flowed underground from 
one continent, and risen in another. Here still it is the 
river of Faith, but there is a transfiguration of it into still 
greater glory in Christ. The glorious Lord, who was to be 
the place of rivers, stands in human form, and says, If any 
man thirst, let him come u^o me and drink. He sits by 
Jacob's well, and says, Whosoever shall drink of this water 
shall thirst again ; but whosoever drinketh of the water that 
I shall give him shall never thirst ; but the water that I 
shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing 
up into everlasting life. 

In the New Testament we are nearer the Great Fountain, 
than in the Old. Here the Spirit and the Bride say come. 
And let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is 
athirst, come. And whosoever will, let him take the water 
of life freely. He that believeth in me, as the Scripture 
hath said, out of his soul shall flow rivers of living 
water. 

" When a man turns to the Lord," said one of the antique 
Jewish writers, " he is like a fountain filled with living 
water, and rivers flow from him to men of all nations and 
tribes." We want many such fountain-men, men of deep, 
original experience in the grace of faith ; men whose life is 
the fruit of the Spirit. We want believing men, men that 
can say of all God's antagonists, as Joshua and Caleb said 
of the giants of Canaan, They be bread for us. We want 



PREFACE. Vll 

a life of faith, wherewith our peace shall be like a river, and 
our righteousness in Christ like the waves of the sea. 

This river-experience, which is at our own choice, being 
placed at our own disposal, as God's free gift in Christ 
Jesus, if we will have it, is what we need, to prepare us for 
the experience of another river, which cannot be avoided, 
which is neither chosen, nor desirable, and yet inevitable. 

For between us and the City of God, the New Jerusalem, 
lies the river of Death ; and every human being must go 
down into it. Its waters are cold, icy-cold ; and a cloud and 
thick gloom hang over it, which only the eye of Faith can 
penetrate. Downward and upward are the exits from it ; 
downward beneath the gloom, into deeper gloom, and 
darker waters, or upward from it, and above it, into light, 
joy, and glory. He that has taken a draught at the river 
of the water of life, this side the stream of death, shall pass 
safely over it. He shall never see death. It was the 
word of our Lord, Whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, 
shall never die. 

He shall pass from grace to grace, from life to life, from 
glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the L ord. Where that 
experience is going on, and just in proportion as it deepens, 
Death is swallowed up in Victory. The River of Death, that 
looked so broad and deep, so dark and terrible, appears 
oftentimes, when the feet of the Pilgrims press its margin, 
as an insignificant rill, and on the other side, the land of 
glory shining, with multitudes of friendly angels waiting. 
Sometimes the Pilgrims seem to go over dry-shod ; for step 
after step, as faith advances, the tide retreats and separates. 
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee ; 



... 

viil PREFACE. 

and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee ; for He 
is there, who layeth the beams of his chambers in the 
waters, and who saith to the deep, Be dry. Even there, he 
can spread his pavilion round about thee, and thou shalt be 
as a sleeping child, carried even in the cradle from the 
nursery to heaven. 

On the whole, the subject of this volume is a beautiful 
and fruitful theme. The sacred rivers are like celestial lines, 
or golden threads of Providence, whereby you may trace 
story and poetry, and count many divine lessons, not as 
orient pearls at random strung, but having a great historic 
life and unity of meaning. The author has selected his 
sacred localities, and interwoven his descriptions, with a 
pleasing and natural mixture of devout reflection, which 
redeems the work from the dreary monotony of gilding, 
engraving, fine type, and little else, characterizing so many 
pictorial issues of the press for show. The volume is at once 
profitable to the student, and grateful to the feelings of the 
Christian. 



New York, 1851. 



PREFACE. 



The want of works suitable for reading on the Lord's day 
has been often felt. Parents, teachers, and others who have 
the care of youth, who feel the responsibility of training up 
their charge in the knowledge and fear of the Lord, are often 
at a loss how to direct the employment of time on this, sacred 
day. There are many hours not occupied in attendance on 
the public means of grace, which they feel ought not to be 
spent in secular occupations, or mere amusement. A book 
which shall convey divine truths in a manner calculated to 
win the attention, engage the interest, and allure the reader 
on from page to page with unabated pleasure, cannot but 
be valuable. We can hardly expect that our children and 
domestics, who have never yet become experimentally 
acquainted with Divine grace, should be able to relish works 
of a doctrinal or devotional character, which afford food and 
minister refreshment to a spiritual person. And yet it 
would be culpable negligence to permit them to follow their 
own inclinations, without an effort to instruct their minds and 
win their hearts to God. 



X PREFACE. 

The Author of the present volume proposed to himself the 
production of a work which should embrace many subjects 
of varied interest, treated in a lively and attractive manner, 
yet not out of keeping with the sacred engagements and 
associations of the Lord's day, to meet this want. The 
Rivers and Streams of Palestine and the neighboring lands y 
hallowed by their mention in the book of God, and the 
narratives of high interest connected with these scenes in 
Holy Writ, are the immediate subjects of the work ; while it 
has been the object of the Author to draw from these events 
and scenes the lessons of heavenly wisdom, the truths of 
spiritual import, bearing on the faith and practice of man, 
for which they have been recorded. It is hoped that the 
whole spirit and tone of these pages, as well as every 
sentiment in them, may be found to be in harmony with 
the " doctrine which is according to godliness," and promote 
the glory of the Lord Jesus. 

May He deign to use and to bless this little volume, as 
well as any future ones, to which, if successful, it may be 
preliminary. 

London, Sept. 1851. 



SACRED STREAMS 



-*••- 



author's introduction. 

Very pleasant are the associations which we 
habitually connect with a river ; whether we think 
of it as bubbling out of its crystal fountain in the 
mountain-side ; — or dashing, in a sheeted cascade, 
over green and slippery rocks, half hidden by jutting 
ferns, whirled about in feathery tufts of spray by 
every playful breeze, and lost in a perpetual cloud of 
foam in the dark hollow beneath ; — or brawling along 
the valley in its pebbly bed, murmuring and fretting 
at the petty opposition it meets with ;— or silently 
pursuing its broad and majestic course through the 
plains and meadows, fertilizing cultivated regions, 
reflecting from its peaceful bosom villages, and towns, 
and domed cities ; — or at length, having received a 
hundred tributaries, dilating into the vast estuary, 
bearing the proud fleets of commerce and war, and 
almost rivalling in grandeur the ocean into which it 
is pouring its everlasting tribute of waters. 

Sweet is it, in the heat of summer's noon, to sit 
on the mossy bank, and watch the meandering 
stream, now darkling and concealed from the sun by 

1 



2 author's introduction. 

the overhanging shrubs and trees, whose branches 
kiss one another across its bosom, now sparkling out 
in the bright sunbeams that reveal and illuminate 
every stone and shell upon its bottom, — to feel its 
coolness, and admire its clearness, and enjoy the 
thoughts and images, associations and feelings, which 
it presents to the mind, all peaceful, soothing, and 
refreshing. 

And pleasant it is to muse on the varied scenes 
and events and characters, with which it has been 
connected in by-gone ages, and in which its memory 
is embalmed. To say, Here, on these banks, was 
marshalled the little band, feeble in numbers, but 
strong in their love of their native soil, and in their 
righteous cause, who met the swarming hosts of 
invading foes, and fought and conquered. Here, by 
this stone, stood the dauntless man, who dared to 
withstand a tyrant's cruel mandate, and delivered 
his village from oppression. There, in that little cot, 
was born the hero who led his country's fleets to 
victory, and caused her name to be mentioned with 
reverence among the nations. Along this verdant 
bank has often mused the poet, whose burning 
words have found a response in many a land and 
language ; and from the wild and beautiful scenery 
of this lovely stream he caught his inspiration. 
Yonder rising knoll has witnessed the experiments 
of the philosopher, who subjected to man's will and 
power the elements of nature. The music of this 
murmuring brook used often to soothe the soul 
of the philanthropist, as he mused on his plans for 
ameliorating the condition of his suffering fellow- 
men. 



author's introduction. 3 



But if we in this temperate climate know a little 
of the pleasant feelings connected with clear streams 
and running waters, what must be their force in 
lands where the severest trials of life are described 
under the emblem of the fierce rays of the sun ! 
where the protecting care of Jehovah for His dear 
people is called a "shadow from the heat," the 
" shadow of a great rock in a weary land !" and 
where the sweetest joys of the heavenly rest are set 
before the tried and tempted saints of God, under 
similar imagery : — " Neither shall the sun light on 
them, nor anv heat. For the Lamb . . . shall lead 
them unto living fountains of waters !" 

In such lands, nothing is more natural than that 
fresh streams and flowing rivers should be constantly 
used by the inspired poets and prophets, as emblems 
by which to call up and shadow forth the sweetest, 
holiest, and most comfortable thoughts. Is peace 
spoken of? It shall " flow as a river." Is judgment 
or righteousness prayed for ? It is that it may " run 
down as waters, and as a mighty stream." The 
advantages of wisdom in a man's heart are " as deep 
waters, and as a flowing brook." Is a man under 
the curse of God? "He shall not see the rivers, 
the floods, the brooks of honey and butter." Do 
desolation and confusion spread over the earth, 
wasting and destroying like an irruption of the sea ? 
The protection and preservation of the saints of God 
are secured ; for " there is a river, the streams 
whereof shall make glad the city of God." The Lord 
Jesus is set forth " as rivers of water in a dry place ;' 
He will, by-and-by, bless restored Jerusalem, so 
long withered and forsaken, and " extend peace to 



4 author's introduction. 

her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a 
flowing stream ;" — He will himself be to Israel " a 
place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go 
no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass 
thereby/' For He is the Fountain and Well-spring 
of all blessing. 

How great must have been the joy and comfort 
which the ancient people of God took in their rills 
and brooks wherewith their thirst was quenched, and 
by which fertility was given to the beautiful and 
goodly land, that " land of brooks of water," of 
hills and valleys, which Jehovah had given them, 
and from which so many sweet images and allusions 
were drawn, turning their thoughts to earthly and 
heavenly blessings, and to their gracious and loving 
God! 

And if historical and personal associations often 
crowd upon the mind, as we walk by the bank of a 
favorite stream in our own land, endearing it to our 
imagination and heart, — with what a deepened in- 
terest should we tread where every spot is hallowed 
by some ancient memory, some record of a history 
in which God himself is the chief actor. Not a rill 
or river but has some story to tell, some lesson to 
teach, some song of praise to elicit, in lands where 
angels talked with men, where inspired poets sang, 
where prophets and seers unfolded the far-distant 
future, where the visible glory of God dwelt, where 
the arm of Jehovah was ever stretched out in bless- 
ing, deliverance, protection or chastisement, where 
patriarchs sojourned, and where, for a while, taber- 
nacled Jesus, the glorious " Word made flesh." 



I. 

THE EIVER EUPHRATES. 



Paradise. — The Fall — Grace — The Promised Seed — Sacrifice — 
Reconciliation — Righteousness. _, 

Babel. — The Builders — The Tower — The (Confusion of Tongues — 
Birs Nimroud. 

The Migration of Abram. — The Mesopotamian Valley — The Ca- 
valcade — Abram and Lot — The Call of Abram — Sojourn at Char- 
ran — The Stranger and Pilgrim. 

The Mission of Eliezer. — Prayer — Rebekah — The Return — The 
Antitype. 

Babylon. — The Hanging Gardens — The Palace — The Court — 
Daniel — The Great Image — The Kingdom of Christ. 

The Captives.— Israel's Desolation — Seraiah's Mission — The Doom 
of Babylon — Belshazzar's Feast — The Writing on the Wall — 
Daniel's Interpretation — Cyrus — The Last Night of Babylon. 

Subsequent History. — Topography — Ruins of Babylon — The Eu- 
phrates Expedition — Physical History — A solemn Contrast. 

GENESIS II. III. 

A fair and goodly scene is spread before our reverent 
imagination. A broad valley expands on either hand, 
bounded by distant mountains, whose purple peaks, 
range above range, glow in the beams of the morning 
sun. Hill and dale, irregular undulations, broad 
swelling mounds, and gentle slopes, afford perpetual 
variety to the surface. Through the centre there 
flows, in winding course, a broad river, the smooth- 



6 



THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 



ness of whose mirror-like bosom is unruffled by a 
ripple, as it pours its volume of clear and calm waters 
onward to the ocean. It is the majestic Euphrates. 
This is Eden, the garden of God. Everything that 
can gratify the sense is here in abundance, unmingled 
with anything that can hurt or annoy. " Every tree 
that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food," 
grows here ; the spreading arms of the banian, the 
baobab, and the terebinth, cover the ground with a 




Oriental Vegetation. 



refreshing shadow ; the massive forms of the oak 
and the cotton-tree contrast with the taper elegance 
of the poplar and the pine ; the graceful banana and 



PARADISE. 



plantain wave their broad leaves, cut into strips by 
the wanton breeze ; huge clumps of bamboos nod 
like gigantic ostrich-plumes on the hillocks ; and 
above all tower up into the sky the light and lofty 
palms, waving their feathery green coronets against 
the sparkling blue of heaven. 

How temptingly the rich fruits hang and cluster 
in these spicy groves ! On the highest knolls the 
juicy apple and pear, the velvet peach, the bloomed 
plum, the golden apricot, and the blushing cherry 
stand in thick profusion ; in the lower glades, walled 
in by the sheltering groves, are others richer still ; the 
brilliant pomegranate, the yellow guava, the custard- 
apple, so meltingly luscious, the odorous pine-apple, 
the citron and orange, and the most delicious of 
terrestrial productions, the crimson mangosteen, 
invite the hand to pluck them. The queenly date- 
palm is loaded with its ;_ (veet bunches, over which 
the vine, climbing to its lofty summit, has thrown 
a drapery of graceful foliage, and formed a natural 
arbour, thickly hung with empurpled clusters. 

]STo trace of winter is here ; but the glories of 
spring, of summer, and of autumn are united in one 
sweet season, for which earth has no name. The 
opening bud, the expanded flower, the matured fruit, 
are everywhere seen together in beautiful harmony. 
The air is redolent with the fragrance of flowers, and 
the eye is enraptured with their beauty of colour and 
of form. What gorgeous and fantastic parasites 
droop from the branches of the great trees ! What 
a magnificence of sheeted bloom is displayed by those 
masses of purple rhododendrons ! 

The roses are here without thorns, and the fruits 



8 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

are not defended by brambles. No naked spots of 
brown, barren earth appear, nor do any points of 
jagged rock jnt out through the verdant turf; but 
here and there its greenness is varied by precious 
gems lying unheeded, as if they had dropped out of 
a royal diadem. The topaz, and the emerald, and 
the golden chrysolite, the rich ruby, and the sparkling 
diamond fling back most lustrously the rays of the 
sun ; and where the placid river gently washes its 
bordering sands, lie masses of gold and silver, some in 
unformed magnificence, and others vying with the 
vegetable productions around, in displaying various 
arborescent and foliated forms of fantastic beauty. 

Every thing speaks of wisdom, and power, and 
skill ; but not of these alone : consummate goodness 
is especially manifest. The scrupulous exclusion of 
that not only which could injure or give pain, but 
w T hich could displease in the least degree, with the 
accumulation of all that could afford delight, speaks 
loudly of the benevolence of the Almighty Creator. 
But who are the guests for whom this feast is spread ? 
It is a new-born world on which we are looking, and 
this garden is the very concentration of its glory, but 
yesterday out of the hand of its Maker. Where are 
the tenants for whom this residence is provided ? 

Many living creatures walk among these groves, 
and repose upon the enamelled greensward. The wolf 
and the lamb are feeding together, and the speckled 
leopard is lying down with the kid ; the tiger is leaping 
in gamesome play around the ruminating kine ; and 
yonder the lordly lion is gently licking with his 
rough tongue the fur of the gazelle that is lying 
between his paws. These are all harmless and guile- 



PARADISE. 9 

less ; yet none of them seem capable of more than 
a superficial enjoyment of the loveliness amidst which 
they dwell. Yonder comes one who by his superior 
size and mien may claim a higher consideration ; as 
he slowly marches through the grove of teak-trees, 
the forest shakes with his tread, his eye beams with 
intelligence and sagacity, and as he now and then 
plucks a flower with his lithe proboscis, he seems to 
have a higher appreciation of its beauty and fragrance 
than his fellows. But as he draws nearer we see 
that he is only one among them, and that the fair 
garden was not made for him. 

Is this beauteous scene then without an inhabitant 
capable of ruling and of enjoying it ? 'No. Yoices 
come up from the banks of Euphrates, and there, 
seated in a bower of jasmine and rose, are a pair 
of God-like beings, to whom has been committed the 
lordship of this paradise. Not like the beasts they 
sit, but erect, and with their faces towards the 
heavens ; nor clothed, but in naked dignity ; for as 
yet there is no sin, and therefore no shame. Only 
they two are seen, yet as they converse on high and 
holy themes, a third voice, of awful yet gentle tones, 
mingles with theirs. It is the voice of God, and yet 
they are not afraid. 

Do we seek to know the nature of the converse 
between the Most High God and his creature man — 
as yet unfallen and stainless ? The gracious Creator 
speaks of the glories of his new-made world, and 
appoints Man his vicegerent over it. " Have do- 
minion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of 
th^ air, and over every living thing that moveth upon 
the earth." He speaks also of higher things ; and 

2 



10 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

to their grateful ears He reveals somewhat of his own 
nature and character ; He tells them of his wisdom 
and power, of his love and faithfulness, his holiness 
and justice. He speaks to them of their relation to 
himself ; of their duty ; claims implicit and exact 
obedience at all times from them ; promises ever- 
lasting continuance in happiness if they remain true 
in allegiance to him, but warns them that the conse- 
quence of disobedience will be death. To all they 
yield an intelligent and willing assent, and, conscious 
of their uprightness, say Amen to the threatenings, 
no less than to the promises. Finally, one te&t their 
Almighty Sovereign gives them, whereby he will 
prove their obedience. There are in the midst of the 
garden two trees of mystic powder. The one is the 
tree of life, whose fruit, yielded every month, is in- 
tended to be, in case of obedience, the sacramental 
pledge of immortality. The other is the tree of 
knowledge of good and evil ; the fruit of which is 
fair and beautiful to the eye, pleasant to the taste, 
and good for food ; but it is hedged round by the 
solemn prohibition of Jehovah, who thus promulgates 
his only law, " Of the tree of the knowledge of good 
and evil, thou shalt not eat of it : for in the day that 
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The 
knowledge of good shall be possessed while man 
abstains in obedience to Grod : the fatal knowledge of 
evil shall be introduced if he in disobedience partake 
of its fruit. Thus is established, though but for a 
brief season, the Covenant of Works. " The man 
that doeth them, shall live in them." 



» ♦ . > » 



\ 



THE FALL. 11 

It is evening. The effulgent sun, after having 
climbed up to the zenith, has at length descended to 
the horizon, and looks with slanting gaze upon a 
scene whose loveliness he will not see on the morrow. 
A pleasant breeze is whispering among the tremulous 
leaves of the grove, and breaking the surface of 
Euphrates into a dancing and sparkling ripple. The 
voice of the turtle comes plaintively over the river, 
and the nightingale has already begun his nightly 
hymn of praise. The beasts are gamboling in sportive 
innocence, and all nature is enjoying the " cool of 
the day." 

But where are Adam and his wife ? Alas ! the 
scene has no joy for them. They have listened 
to the voice of the insidious tempter, and have eaten 
of the tree of knowledge of good and evil ! They 
have gained the knowledge of evil which before 
they knew not ; their knowledge of good amounts 
only to the assurance that they have lost it. 
They perceive — what hitherto had excited no feeling 
of shame — that they are naked ; they have lost the 
covering robe of innocence, which was the assurance 
of God's protection, and their bodily nakedness now 
appears to them as an emblem and an expression of 
that shameful and defenceless condition to which 
their souls are reduced. They are engaged, in moody 
and desponding silence, in endeavoring to sew to- 
gether the broad leaves of a fig-tree, to form a flimsy 
covering for their exposed persons. Yain attempt ! 
as if a guilty and condemned sinner could, by any 
works or contrivances of his own, repel or avert the 
threatenings of divine wrath ! 

Hark ! from the accustomed bower comes a well- 



12 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

known voice. Awful it had seemed in their innocence, 
but now, — how does it thrill through their trembling 
hearts ! In their insanity of terror they seek to hide 
among the trees from the omniscient Jehovah ; but 
again the voice comes forth, " Where art thou ?" 
And the terrific demand penetrates in a moment all 
their disguises, and compels the reluctant reply. 

Oh, who would not have expected that now the 
sentence hanging over the guilty pair would be at 
once pronounced, and as quickly executed ! The 
doom would have been righteous, nor could a breath 
have been uttered against the spotless holiness and 
justice of the Most High God, if He had now glorified 
himself in vengeance, as He had done before upon 
the sinning angels. For " whatever there hath been 
in any sin, of unbelief, ingratitude, apostasy, rebellion, 
robbery, contempt, defiance, hard thoughts of, and 
enmity against, God ; whatever there hath been of 
idolatry, as comprehending faith in, worship of, and 
obedience to, Satan, the god and prince of this 
world ; of exorbitant pride, self-love, and self-will, in 
affecting that independency, exaltation, and homage, 
which belong to God ; and that inordinate love of 
the creatures, in seeking our happiness in the pos- 
session and enjoyment of them; whatever of discon- 
tent, sensual lust, covetousness, murder, and mischief, 
were ever yet contained in any one, or all of the sins 
which have been committed upon earth ; — all con- 
centred in this one transgression. 5 '* 

But God's thoughts are not man's thoughts. It 
is not for the execution of vengeance that He is now 

* Scott, in loc. 



THE PROMISED SEED, 13 

come down, but for the exhibition of a glorious 
attribute in his character, which had never yet been 
manifested. That attribute is grace. The Al- 
mighty God hath once glorified himself by inflicting 
righteous wrath upon the angels that kept not their 
first estate ; He will now still more greatly glorify 
himself in freely forgiving guilty man. 

The poor culprits, indeed, little expect the exhi- 
bition of mercy, and are only intent on hiding their 
sin or extenuating its guilt. But Jehovah, unsolicited 
and without waiting for any humiliation on their 
part, reveals his purpose, and takes the side of the 
sinner against the insidious destroyer. A Deliverer 
is promised, the Seed of the woman, who shall suc- 
cessfully contend with him before whom they have 
fallen. He is to be the woman's Seed, that He 
may gain the victory in human form and nature, in 
which it has been lost. But He is to be mightier 
than Satan, the great enemy of God and man ; and 
therefore Divine. Here, then, is the great promise 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, 
as the repairer of the breach, and the reconciler of 
man to God. 

Not without cost, however, can the reconciliation 
be accomplished. " Thou shalt bruise his heel." 
The Son of God, when, at the appointed time, he 
comes to carry out this purpose of grace, must accom- 
plish it by his own sufferings and death. Satan and 
his seed, in the fury of their rage, shall succeed in 
crucifying the Lord of glory, and thus appear to gain 
a momentary triumph. But this is, in truth, the 
victory ; for by His giving up himself as a sacrifice 
for sin, and as a surety for guilty man, the righteous 
claim of God's hoi v law is fullv met, and Satan's 



14 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

power over the believing sinner for ever crushed and 
broken. Thus, by the voluntary humiliation of the 
Son of God, putting away sin by the sacrifice of him- 
self, the majesty of the Divine holiness is more glori- 
ously vindicated than it could have been even by the 
infliction of the penalty on the guilty sinner ; while 
at the same time it makes a way for the out-flowing 
of that mighty grace for which the praises of count- 
less millions of redeemed saints shall go up to God 
throughout eternity. 

To impress these solemn but most blessed truths 
on the hearts of the pardoned sinners, and to teach 
them to exercise an active and personal faith on the 
promised Saviour, a striking scene is now enacted : 
an altar of earth is quickly formed, an innocent lamb 
is selected from the flocks playing around, and dies 
by the hand of God ; and the body, placed on the 
altar, is consumed by fire from heaven. They are 
thus vividly taught that God accepts an innocent 
victim, of whom this lamb is a shadow, instead of the 
guilty, the guilt being transferred or imputed to 
the representative. Through the sign they look to 
the thing signified, thankfully accept GocTs Lamb 
as their surety, and joyfully behold the flame of 
Divine wrath averted from themselves and falling 
upon their representative. 

And now the skin of the slain victim is, by the 
hand of God himself, made into garments, with 
which He clothes their nakedness ; and their own poor 
fig-leaves are gladly cast aside for ever. In this they 
are taught not only a sinner's need of a righteous- 
ness to cover him, better than any he can procure, 
but that God himself provides that righteousness, 
and clothes him with it; and that this is none other 



THE BUILDERS. 



15 



than the righteousness of the Lamb of God, whose 
blood has already made atonement for his guilt. 

Reader ! Have you ever felt the need of blood to 
cancel your guilt, and of a spotless righteousness to 
cover your soul before God % And have you found 
these in Christ ? 



\p 












GENESIS XI. 



Nearly eighteen centuries have passed away ; and 
the lovely garden of Eden has been so defaced and 
destroyed by the overflowing of the flood, that not a 




The Euphrates. 



vestige even of its situation remains. But " that 
great river, the river Euphrates," still flows through 
the same region as before, and on its banks we again 
take our stand. 



16 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

Since our first scene the earth has been peopled, 
depopulated, and is now fast filling with people again. 
But they have not learned righteousness from God's 
judgments. Pride, self-will, a haughty independency 
of God, and a daring defiance of his purposes, are 
their characteristics. They seek to aggrandize them- 
selves, to do deeds of renown, that shall exalt their 
own glory, and make their names to be remembered 
with admiration among men. The Divine command 
to replenish the earth is already operating, and 
families are beginning to wander away eastward 
and westward, and northward and southward. But 
to the majority this is displeasing, and they seek to 
resist, and, if possible, to prevent this dispersion, and 
to form a great centre of unity, around which all the 
families of mankind should gather under one govern- 
ment. And other still more infidel thoughts are 
working in their hearts : forgetful or regardless of 
the promise that there should be no more a flood 
to destroy the earth, they task their ingenuity to 
devise means whereby they may laugh to scorn the 
vengeance of Jehovah, should he again resort to such 
a means of executing his wrath against sin. 

A grand council is called ; and Nimrod, who has 
already grown from a mighty hunter of beasts to be 
a king of men, takes the lead in its decisions. In 
their proud self-sufficiency, and in that consciousness 
of power which is inspired by great masses of men 
combining with unity of purpose, they think that 
nothing can be restrained from them which they 
imagine to do. " Go to," is their language, for they 
encourage themselves in the evil matter ; " Go to, 
let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may 



THE BUILDERS. 



reach unto heaven ; and let us make us a name, lest 
we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole 
earth." 

And lo ! a place is found which seems expressly 
formed for the carrying out of their godless design. 
An immense tract of level ground, the plain of Shinar, 
expands on each side j^ 



the making of bricks ; 

° Bricks from Babylon. 

and there are in the 

vicinity fountains which throw up large quantities of 
asphaltum, or mineral pitch, which being heated shall 
serve them as a strong and durable cement. 

But why, if it be their object to form a tower of 
such an elevation as shall put them out of danger of 
any future deluge, do they not rather select the sum- 
mit of a mountain than a level plain ? Doubt- 
less, because there the means of building such a 
structure would be difficult to procure, while here 
they are found in abundance ; not to mention 
the eligibility of the situation, on the banks of a 
mighty river, for a city which is intended to be the 
metropolis of mankind. 

In high hope and eager confidence of success, the 
work begins. The earth dug out to form the foun- 
dation is laid in heaps, fashioned into square bricks, 



18 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

and baked in a furnace. The bitumen, melted by 
heat, is poured over the structure at every thirtieth 
course of bricks, which, running down into the inter- 
stices, cements the whole, by cooling, into one solid 
mass. The city and the tower proceed simultane- 
ously ; and as there are many artificers, both are 
rapidly rising. "What vastness and grandeur of de- 
sign are apparent in the work ! One who saw both 
long afterwards, describes the city as a square, each 
side of which measured one hundred and twenty 
stadia, or fifteen miles ; and the tower as having for 
its basement a cube of solid masonry measuring a 
furlong on every side. On this a smaller story is 
erected, and on this another, until eight, successively 
diminishing in size, already elevate the proud edifice 
to the sky. A staircase, winding round the outside 
of the building, leads from story to story. 

But now it is time for God to interfere. He looks 
down from heaven, and sees with displeasure, that, 
with very few exceptions, all the children of men are 
engaged in following the devices of their own evil 
hearts. Noah and Shem, with perhaps a small godly 
remnant, have protested against the baneful enter- 
prise, but without effect, and they have retired from 
their fellows. The work has been suffered to proceed 
until the design of the contrivers has become fully 
manifest, and their pride and rage against the Most 
High abundantly developed. Yet he deals with them 
in undeserved mercy ; He does not pour upon them 
the fierceness of his wrath, but contents himself with 
putting an effectual stop to their vain-glorious design. 

Hitherto there had been no deviation from the 
primitive tongue spoken by the antediluvians, and 



THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES. 19 

preserved by Noah and his family. " The whole 
earth was of one language and one speech." But 
now, by a miraculous interposition, the Almighty 
God confounds their language, introducing new 
tongues and dialects, and obliterating from their 
minds all remembrance of that which they had 
hitherto spoken. Utter confusion is the immediate 
consequence ; an undistinguishable jargon of sounds, 
in which no man understands his fellow ; and hence 
the work is brought to a sudden period, from the 
impossibility of combined operation in the absence 
of a common vehicle for the communication of 
ideas. 

Thus easily does God baffle the proudest designs 
of men, when they interfere with his purposes. " He 
that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh ; the Lord 
shall have them in derision." And thus shall it ever 
be ; those who set themselves up against the revealed 
purposes of God, whether in providence or in grace, 
and persist in their mad obduracy, shall not only find 
that their schemes are vain and useless, but shall reap 
everlasting shame and confusion as their portion. 

The desire of these bold builders was to make for 
themselves a name. Yet of not a single individual 
of the mighty multitude has history preserved the 
name ; if we except Nimrod, of whom it is emphati- 
cally said, " The beginning of his kingdom was Babel 
[confusion]." 

More than four thousand years have elapsed since 
the event which we have described took place ; yet 
there, in the midst of the desolate plaift. of Shinar, 
stands the mighty pile, a burnt and blackened heap, 
an eloquent witness of the power and yet the impo- 



20 



THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 



tency of man. Kingdoms and cities have risen and 
fallen there, leaving scarcely a trace behind ; but 
there rolls still, in silent dignity, the broad Euphrates, 
and on its banks stands yet the shrunken and shape- 
less, but still gigantic ruin. 




Birs Nimroud. 



The following description of the great heap, called 
by the Arabs " Birs Nimroud," is given by Mr. Rich 
in his " Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon," and is 
interesting as showing the present condition of the 
mightiest and most ancient of human works of art. 
" The Birs Nimroud is a mound of an oblong form, 
the total circumference of w T hich is 762 yards. At 
the eastern side it is cloven by a deep furrow, and is 
not more than fifty or sixty feet high ; but at the 
western side it rises in a conical figure to the eleva- 
tion of 198 feel, and on its summit is a solid pile of brick 
thirty-seven feet high by twenty-eight in breadth, 



THE MES0P0TAMIAN VALLEY. 21 

diminishing in thickness to the top, which is broken 
and irregular, and rent by a large fissure extending 
through a third of its height. It is perforated by 
small square holes disposed in rhomboids. The fine 
burnt bricks of which it is built have inscriptions on 
them, and so excellent is the cement, which appears 
to be lime-mortar, that it is nearly impossible to ex- 
tract one whole. The other parts of the summit of 
this hill are occupied by immense fragments of brick- 
work of no determinate figure, tumbled together, 
and converted into solid vitrified masses, the layers 
of brick being perfectly discernible. These ruins 
stand on a prodigious mound, the whole of which is 
itself a ruin, channelled by the weather, and strewed 
with fragments of black stone, sandstone, and marble. 
In the eastern part, layers of unburnt brick, but no 
reeds, are to be seen. In the north side may be seen 
traces of building exactly similar to the brick pile. 
At the foot of the mound a step may be traced scarcely 
elevated above the plain, exceeding in extent, by 
several feet each way, the true or measured base ; 
and there is a quadrangular enclosure round the 
whole as at the Mujelibe, [another immense ruin, 
supposed to have been the palace of the kings of 
Babylon,] but much more perfect, and of greater 
dimensions." 



genesis xn. 



Let us in imagination transport ourselves to 
a winding valley in the midst of a wild and preci- 
pitous mountain-region. Some of the loftiest peaks 



22 



THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 



are covered with snow ; and patches of white, speck- 
ling the mountain side, though the spring is far 
advanced, tell ns that we are now in a country where 
the reign of winter is familiar. A stream of con- 
siderable size pours through the lower ground, now 
hemmed in by precipitous walls of rock, now. dashing 
in a sheet of foam over a broken ledge, now brawling 
in its deep channel beneath, covered with fragments 
of ice and half-melted masses of mountain snow, and 
now spreading itself over a level tract in a broad and 
shallow pool. We are again on the banks of the 
Euphrates, in its upper course, and the uneven 
country around us is the highland of Mesopotamia. 




v'V 



A Me3>>potemian Valley. 



The water of the river is of a chilling coldness, yet 
the air, in the sheltered bottoms, is mild and balmy, 
and the ravs of the sun, reflected from the mountain 
sides, pour down with great power upon the verdant 



THE MESOPOTAMIAST VALLEY. 



23 



banks. The oak forests and groves of walnuts that 
stud the higher slopes are already in full leaf, and by 
the yellow-green hue of their newly expanded leaves, 
refresh the eye of the beholder. The southern de- 
clivities are cultivated : well-fenced fields, verdant 
with the springing wheat, are interspersed with vine- 




The Persian Cyclamen. 



yards and olive-yards, and with orchards and gardens 
in which grow the fig, the mulberry, the pomegra- 
nate, the apple, the pear, the almond, and the apricot. 



24 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

These are for the most part richly covered with 
their sheets of beauteous blossom. The silvery pine, 
the tamarisk, and the poplar shoot out of the clefts 
of the rocks, and the spreading limbs of a gigantic 
plane-tree afford shadow to a cottage with its adjuncts. 

The banks of the river, and the whole surface of 
the valley, are like a vast flower-garden. Beds of 
poppies, scarlet and white ; bugloss, borage, and 
larkspur of the richest azure ; white and blushing 
cistuses ; anemones, with white, scarlet and delicately 
pencilled petals ; ranunculuses, campanulas, and 
a thousand other flowers with names unknown to us, 
display their beauties or diffuse their fragrance on 
every side. But chiefly the bulbous-rooted plants 
abound in this region : wild tulips, white, red, and 
blue, yellow daffodils and jonquils, gladioluses, hya- 
cinths of many species, cyclamens with drooping, 
blushing blossoms, and lilies of every gay hue, scar- 
let, orange, yellow, white, purple, shoot up their 
sword-like leaves and expand their lovely corollas 
from the mossy turf, enamelling its surface like 
a gorgeous carpet. 

But what is that moving mass slowly emerging 
from a dark gorge far up in the hills, and gradually 
extending itself in a long winding line on the moun- 
tain-side ? The shouts of men, softened by the distance, 
come distinctly upon the ear, mingled with the lowing 
of oxen, the bleating of calves and sheep, and other 
confused sounds that are too far off to be recognised. 
The tortuous train of living things still lengthens, 
and long before the last of the file has issued from 
the distant pass, the van has approached sufficiently 
near for us to perceive the nature and character of 



THE MIGRATION. 25 

the procession. Its course is evidently towards yon- 
der level spot, where the Euphrates, spreading itself 
over the ground in a broad but shallow lake, may 
without much difficulty be forded. 

In front, seated on a milk-white ass of great size 
and noble bearing, is one who is evidently the lord of 
the Darty. His fine features, though browned bv 
habitual exposure, have the freshness which marks 
the native of an upland country. His erect carriage, 
the calm dignity of his countenance, and the com- 
pression of his finely-formed lips, tell of one accus- 
tomed to command ; though at present he seems to 
take little part in the active superintendence of the 
cavalcade, and the fire of his large dark eyes is tem- 
pered by a meekness that seems habitual to them. 
He is clothed in a long white robe, as are many of 
his companions, and only the large jewel that blazes 
in the front of his richly-colored turban, distin- 
guishes his dress from theirs. The raven blackness 
of his hair begins to yield to the assaults of years, 
yet the venerable man before us can scarcely yet be 
considered as beyond the prime of life. 

By his side, mounted like himself on a white ass, 
is a man apparently of the same rank in life, but 
considerably younger. His features are cast in the 
same mould, but are less pleasing in their expression ; 
and his unquiet eye lacks the meekness of his more 
aged companion's. They converse together with an 
unreserved freedom, and there is in their deportment 
toward each other an affectionate cordiality, which 
indicates that they are bound by the tie of friend- 
ship, if not of kindred. 

The procession is evidently that of a wealthy 

2 



26 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

pastoral emir, migrating with his numerous household 
and retainers, and with his flocks and herds, from one 
country to another. The long, curved, ungainly 
necks of hundreds of camels rise above the general 
level, and their hunched backs are loaded with tents, 
poles, the larger articles of furniture, and various 
packages of baggage, so as often to project far on 
each side. On the very summit of some of these, 
seated on the immense piles of lighter luggage, at an 
elevation which makes us tremble for the security of 
their position, we see women, old men, and even 
children, who gaze about with an indifference or 
a curiosity which shows us that the apparent danger 
of their position is not at all occupying their thoughts. 
These are the slaves and inferior domestics of the 
household. 

The baggage camels follow one another in single 
file, each being led by a halter fastened to the 
harness of the one that precedes it ; the foremost of 
the number is guided by an experienced servant, who 
either leads it by the halter, or rides upon its hunch. 
Around are many saddled and bridled dromedaries, 
camels of a lighter and more elegant form, differing 
not in species, but only in breed, from their more 
clumsy and ungainly fellows, just as a riding-horse 
differs from a cart-horse. These bear the officers of 
the establishment, — the stewards, the chief herdsmen 
and shepherds, and the superintendents of the various 
classes of menials which belong to so extensive 
a household, together with their wives and elder 
children. They are not strung together like the 
drudging baggage-camels, but each rider governs 
his own beast. 



THE MIGRATION. 27 

Asses are prominent in the cavalcade. Not the 
poor, ragged, spirit-broken drudges of modern 
times, with which we in the west are familiar, but 
sleek, well-formed, high-mettled animals, little in- 
ferior to horses in size, figure, or speed. Most of 
these are led ; though a few are saddled, and bear 
some of the most confidential of the domestic 
servants, immediately behind the emir and his young 
companion. The she-asses are accompanied by their 
prancing foals. 

Herds of lowing oxen and kine, some with long 
pendent horns, and others with short horns and a 



Oriental Cattle. 



prominent hump on the shoulders ; flocks of sheep 
of a beautiful breed, with tall twisted horns, and 
goats with long hanging ears, bring up the rear, 
making the rocks around vocal with the echoes of 
their pertinacious cries. These are specially valuable 
not only for their flesh, but also for their milk, which, 



28 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

with the butter and cheese produced from it, consti- 
tutes an important part of the food of the house- 
hold. 

The whole motley line is under the guidance and 
supervision of the young and middle-aged ser- 
vants. Vigorous and active youths, with garments 
tucked up, and girded loins, run hither and thither, 
accompanied by their useful, but somewhat despised 
assistants, the " dogs of the flock." They find full 
employment in repressing those animals that are too 
exuberant, driving in those that wander from the 
line of march, urging on the lagging, encouraging by 
voice and caresses such as are becoming weary, taking 
care of those that are hurt, and guarding against the 
thousand mishaps and accidents that are constantly 
liable to occur in such a journey. They carry a rod 
or staff in their hands, but those w^hose special busi- 
ness it is to mind the flocks, substitute for this the 
well-known shepherd's crook. In general, however, 
the voice is sufficient to guide the flock, for the sheep 
know the shepherd's voice. Many of the men are 
seen carrying the young and weakly lambs in their 
arms, or in the folds of their loose garments ; and 
much care is exercised towards those which from age 
or pregnancy, or any other cause, are incapable of 
great fatigue. Hence the progress of the caravan is 
slow, and often interrupted ; and its strength is 
occasionally recruited by a lengthened rest, where 
good pasturage is met with. 

The interesting scene before us is a signal exhibi- 
tion of Faith, "the substance of things hoped for, 
the evidence of things not seen." The venerable 
man at the head of the troop, is Abram, the Hebrew, 



FAITH. 29 

and his companion is Lot, his brother's son. This 
goodly array of flocks and herds is their worldly 
substance, and the men, women, and children, are 
their families and dependents. They are turning 
their backs on their native country, at the command 
of God, and they go forth, not knowing whither they 
go, but content to be guided by the goodness and 
wisdom of their Almighty Friend. 

A few years ago these persons, who now walk by 
faith as strangers and pilgrims, were dwelling in 
consideration and comfort, in Ur of the Chaldees, a 
region lying behind yonder mountain-range, between 
the sources of the Euphrates and the Tigris. Idolatry 
universally prevailed there, though little more than 
three centuries have passed away since the judgment 
of God against sin had brought in the flood upon the 
world of the ungodly. So strong is the tendency of 
man's heart to depart from the true God ! 

To prevent the entire prevalence of idolatry over 
the whole earth, and to establish a permanent witness 
for Himself, the All-wise God determined to deal in 
a different way from that in which He had already 
dealt with man. He therefore elects one man to be 
the progenitor of an elect nation, whom He will 
separate to Himself, to perpetuate his worship, to be 
the recipient of his revealed will, and especially to 
be the channel through which, according to the flesh, 
shall be born at the appointed time, the promised 
Seed of the woman, God over all, blessed for evermore. 

For this purpose the Divine sovereignty selected 
Abram, the son of Terah, and called him out from 
his kindred, and his father's house, to an acquaintance 
with Himself as the Living God. Not that this was 



30 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

owing to any fitness or worthiness on the part of 
Abram ; he was doubtless by practice an idolater 
like his fellows, till the distinguishing grace of God 
found him. The favor of God is the origin of, and 
can never spring from, any goodness in man ; and 
Abram would never have sought the Lord, if the 
Lord had not first sought him. But a divine and 
quickening power accompanied the call ; like his 
illustrious descendent ages afterwards, he was obedient 
to the heavenly vision ; and thus became the Father 
of the Faithful, and the Friend of God. 

The God of glory w T ho appeared to Abram in 
Mesopotamia, and separated him from his natural 
relationships, did not reveal to him whither he was 
to go. The terms of the summons were these : — 
" Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, 
and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will 
shew theeP What a trial must this have been to 
faith ! For a man of substance to pack up all his 
goods, muster his dependents, take his cattle with 
him, and depart for a foreign land, without being 
able to inform his wondering neighbors of even so 
much as the name, the position, or the distance of the 
region to which he is going ! All he could tell them 
was, that a Being, whom they indeed knew not nor 
recognised, but in whose wisdom, skill, power, faith- 
fulness and love he had implicit confidence, had com- 
manded the journey, and had promised to be his 
guide and protector. 

And is not this conduct imitated by every one who 
has set out for the celestial Canaan ? Originally 
dead in sins, and ignorant of God, he has been made 
to hear a gracious call to come out and be separated 



THE CALL OF ABRAM. 31 

from that which is of the present world. The power 
of the Holy Ghost, quickening him into new life, has 
accompanied the call, and enabled him to obey it. 
Henceforth his back is upon the world, and the eye 
of his faith is upon the goodly inheritance by-and-by 
to be revealed. Where it is he knows not ; none that 
have ever been there before have returned to describe 
it to him ; he cannot tell how near it is, or how 
distant, nor when he shall arrive at it ; but he goes 
forward, looking to the shepherd-care of his Lord and 
Saviour, who he is sure will guide him aright, will 
not let him want by the way, and will bring him 
safely, and by the best road, to his heavenly rest. 

The call of Abram had occurred several vears 
before the period of the scene which we have de- 
scribed, and he had at once set out upon his journey. 
His aged father, Terah, and his brother Nahor, had 
accompanied him, perhaps persuaded, like the youth 
ful Lot, by the testimony of their relative, to 
acknowledge and obey the true God. Certain it is, 
that when, long afterwards, the sacred historian leads 
the reader back to Mesopotamia, the name of Jeho- 
vah is recognised among Terah's descendants, and 
the God of Abram is called also the God of Nahor, 
and the God of their father. Often when the sove- 
reign grace of God has singled out an individual from 
a godless family, it is that the favored one may be a 
channel of blessing to the rest ; and the conversion 
of a whole household has frequently resulted from 
that of a single member of it. Yet neither Terah 
nor Nahor ever crossed the Euphrates : they re- 
mained " on the other side of the flood " all their 
days ; the increasing infirmities of the former, and 



32 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

perhaps the supineness and love of ease of the 
latter, prevailed to put an early period to the pilgrim- 
walk that they had undertaken. For fifteen years 
the migration of Abram and Lot was thus delayed, 
during which time the whole family resided at Char- 
ran, But now the aged Terah has gone the way of 
all flesh ; Nahor is unwilling to remove again ; and 
Abram has received a second intimation from the 
Lord Jehovah, that country and kindred are to be 
finally forsaken. 

Henceforth the patriarch has done with cities and 
with houses ; a stranger and a pilgrim dwelling in 
tents, is to be henceforth his character. And even 
when he comes to the Land of Promise, he is still to 
walk by faith through it, in the same character. For 
it is to be at present to him but the Land of Pro- 
mise, not of Possession. The Canaanite is in it, and 
will not just yet be dispossessed ; and until then, the 
friend of God, though assured that it is his inherit- 
ance, has no more than a tent and a pasture in it. 
He will look onward " for a city which hath founda- 
tions, whose builder and maker is God." 

All this is beautifully illustrative of the walk of a 
Christian. When he first turned his back upon the 
world in which he was bom, and in whose pleasures 
and pursuits he was for a while engrossed, he did not 
immediately get into the Canaan of rest. Many 
delays intervene, and often through many years he 
has to sustain the stranger and pilgrim character, 
passing through the world, but not of it. He knows 
that by-and-by a the meek shall inherit the earth, 
and shall delight themselves with abundance of 
peace ;" he is assured that a time is coming when 



THE MISSION OF ELIEZER. 33 

over this wretched and sin-stricken world, where now 
Satan rules, the peaceful and happy reign of Jesus 
shall be extended, whose right it is ; and he has been 
promised that he shall bear a part in the glory of his 
reigning Lord. But meanwhile, " the Oanaanite is 
in the land ;" — this world is in the possession of those 
with whom he can have no fellowship, because they 
reject his Master. He " abides in tents ;" he has no 
home, no permanent resting-place here, but looks 
forward, like his great prototype, the faithful Abram, 
to the City of the all-glorious foundations, that Holy 
City, the New Jerusalem. 



GENESIS XXIV. 



Let us suppose the lapse of threescore years, and 
again take our stand at this same ford of Euphrates. 
A train of camels slowly approaches along the winding 
path that leads from the Syrian desert, the very 
track along which Abram had gone before, but in the 
opposite direction. The beasts are attired in sump- 
tuous housings, and bear rich ornaments on their 
necks and on their head-gear : some of them carry 
the peculiarly formed saddle which is used by ladies 
of rank and station ; but no female is in the troop. 
A venerable man is mounted on the foremost camel, 
and the rest of the company are evidently attendants. 
They cross the ford ; the old man looks round with 
that expression of mingled curiosity and gratification 
with which we recognise objects and scenes once 
familiar, but half-forgotten ; but the train pursues 

2* 



84 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

its way, winds up the opposite slope, and is presently 
lost to view in the rocky gorge that leads the traveller 
to the Upper Mesopotamia. 

Three days afterwards, the quiet of the secluded 
valley is again broken by the tinkling of the camels' 
bells, and the same train is seen returning. ~No 
difference is perceptible in the company, except that 
now the most richly caparisoned dromedary carries 
a young and beautiful lady, and several other females 
accompany and follow her. The venerable conductor 
rides by her side, and entertains her with conversa- 
tion, which to judge from her smiles, and the color 
that comes and goes upon her blushing cheek, is both 
interesting and agreeable. They quickly pass ; we 
trace their diminishing forms for a while ; until at 
length the summit of yonder hill conceals them from 
our sight, and enables them to catch a view of the 
desert across which they have to travel on their way 
to Canaan. 

The history of this expedition is touching and in- 
structive. Abraham has been blessed with a son, 
the Child of Promise, who has now attained mature 
age. The Patriarch, now stricken in years, looks on 
his beloved son, the heir of his possessions, and the 
heir of his piety too, the son to whose line the pro- 
mised Blessing is expressly appropriated, and de- 
sires to see him wedded to a suitable wife. But 
where shall he find a help-meet for a man of God ? 
Not among the filthy inhabitants of the land in 
which he dwells ; not among the daughters of the 
idolatrous Canaanites, the licentious worshippers of 
Baal-peor. From these can never be expected any 
help or comfort to a servant of Jehovah, nor the 



THE MISSION OF ELIEZER. 35 

bringing up of a " godly seed." The surrounding 
nations are little better, all being plunged into the 
grossest vice and the most debasing idolatry. 

But intelligence has recently been brought to the 
anxious Patriarch from his native country, Meso- 
potamia. He learns that the family of his brother 
Nahor are flourishing at Charran, and, what is still 
better, that they are leading, in virtuous simplicity, 
a pastoral life, and that they have preserved, in some 
degree of purity, the knowledge and the worship of 
Jehovah. Here then he determines to seek a bride 
for his beloved son. 

He calls his long-tried, faithful steward, the aged 
Eliezer, born and bred up in his family, who had 
originally accompanied him in his migrations, and 
whose feelings, affections, and interests are identified 
with his own. To him the careful parent reveals his 
purpose, and to him he confides its execution. The 
custom of the country and of the age prescribes such 
a proceeding. Marriage is a subject of negotiation, 
not between the bride and bridegroom themselves, 
whose inclinations it is not considered essential 
previously to consult, but between the parents or 
families of the interested parties. Proposals are made 
frequently through the medium of confidential ser- 
vants, who have authority to conclude the nego- 
tiation. Another thing contrary to western notions 
of delicacy, but immemorially the custom in the 
East, is the purchase of the bride from her family, at 
a stipulated price, varying of course according to her 
personal qualifications and rank in life. 

We have said that the faithfulness and devoted 
attachment of Eliezer have been long tried ; the 



36 THE KIVEK EUPHRATES. 

entire government of his master's house is in his 
hand ; but on an occasion so important as the pre- 
sent, Abraham cannot be satisfied without the solem- 
nity of an oath, The cautious domestic, however, 
desires to know what will be his duty, on the suppo- 
sition that he shall not be able to find a female of 
his master's kindred who will be willing to come 
with him. Abraham frees him from his obligation 
in such a case, but nevertheless assures him that he 
needs not fear ; for that Jehovah, who took him from 
his father's house, and had given him great and pre- 
cious promises, will surely send His angel with his 
messenger and prosper his way. How beautiful is 
this confidence in God ! Both of these men are 
experimentally acquainted with the love and faith- 
fulness of Jehovah ; but the faith of Abraham is 
stronger than the faith of Eliezer ! 

The oath is given, and the trusty servant departs 
with a train of attendants suitable for the high mis- 
sion, and with jewels of gold and silver, valuable 
raiment, as presents for the intended bride and her 
relatives. The journey is long, but the trained dro- 
medaries swiftly cross the Syrian desert, and arrive 
at the frontier of Mesopotamia, where we have found 
the procession. We will follow the venerable steward 
on until he reaches the city of his destination, Charr an, 
where still reside the descendants of Nahor. It is 
evening tide ; but, before he enters the town, he tar- 
ries a while by the well, which, as usual, is situated 
outside the gate. It is the time when the women of 
the city come out to draw water ; a duty which, though 
burdensome, is invariably assigned to females, and is 
the less disliked because it affords them almost the 



THE JIISSIOX OF ELIEZER. 



37 



only opportunity they possess of meeting together 
for cheerful intercourse. None of them are yet 
arrived ; and Eliezer determines to spend the few 
minutes that may intervene, in prayer. Accordingly, 
he makes his tired camels to kneel down, their usual 
mode of taking rest ; while he, reverently standing, 
wrestles with God for a token of blessing. His 
solemn appeal is to Jehovah, the God of his master 
Abraham ; and it is for his master's sake that he 
pleads for a prosperous issue ; he disclaims his own 
judgment in so important a matter, but seeks to find 
the damsel whom God has appointed for his young 
master ; and finally he ventures to ask for a sign 
whereby he may with certainty know the Divine 




Women at Well. 



decision. " Behold," he says, " I stand here by the 
well of water ; and the daughters of the men of the 
city come out to draw water : and let it come to 



38 THE KIVER EUPHRATES. 

pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down 
thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink ; and she 
shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink 
also : let the same be she that thou hast appointed 
for thy servant Isaac ; and thereby shall I know that 
thou hast shewed kindness unto my master." 

Is not the example of Eliezer worthy of imitation 
by every godly man engaged in any undertaking in- 
volving important consequences ? We are taught, 
whether we eat, or drink, or whatsoever we do, to do 
it all to the glory of God. Therefore we should 
seek earnestly to know the mind of God, even in the 
things that concern the present life ; since there 
is nothing in w T hich a child of God may lawfully 
engage, on which he may not ask his heavenly 
Father's direction and blessing. And he should 
expect to have it too ; asking in faith, nothing waver- 
ing. Let him watch the leadings and indications of 
God's providence ; and the promise is clear and ex- 
plicit, that wisdom shall he given to him who thus 
asks it. The written Word, which Eliezer had not, 
is now a Christian's rule of conduct ; and either by 
precept or principle, it will meet every general case. 
To be looking for manifest signs at every turn would 
be now to walk by sight instead of by faith ; yet he 
who habitually carries his undertakings and designs, 
his difficulties and uncertainties to God, will not lack 
special instances of interposition and direction, w^hich, 
however trivial they might seem if reported to others, 
will to himself prove occasions of adoring wonder 
and praise. 

According as the good man prayed, so it comes 
to pass. Even before he has done speaking, a lovely 



REBEKAH. 39 

virgin comes forth bearing her pitcher on her shoulder. 
a little circumstance indicative of her high station, 
as the daughter of a lordly house, the women of in- 
ferior rank habitually bearing the pitcher upon the 
head. Her exceeding beauty and grace are equalled 
only by her simplicity and modest affability. The 
servant runs to meet her, hoping that one so fair may 
indeed prove the destined bride ; he prefers his re- 
quest, and receives the ready answer that his faith 
had prescribed. He gratefully slakes his thirst at 
her pitcher ; and then, in silent admiration not only 
of the lovely maiden, but also of the goodness of the 
Hearer of prayer, looks on while she with sweet ala- 
crity runs again and again down the steep steps of the 
well, and fills the trough with water, until the thirsty 
beasts are satisfied. Surely Eliezer showed his wisdom 
in the qualities which he desired to secure in a 
# wife for his master's son, and which his description 
implied ! Simplicity, industry, humility, kindness, 
affability, hospitality, readiness in obliging, and cheer- 
fulness in service ; — how valuable are these qualifi- 
cations ; and how far superior to mere beauty of face 
or form, or what, according to the fashion of this pre- 
sent world, are considered feminine accomplishments! 
The whole business is now soon accomplished. 
The maiden, on being asked her parentage, declares 
herself to be Eebekah, the grand-daughter of Nahor, 
and invites the stranger to her father's house. He 
immediately invests her with some of the precious 
jewels, a nose-ring and bracelets of gold, which he 
had brought for the purpose ; and declares his own 
relation to Abraham. The negotiation with the 
family involves a revelation of Abraham's greatness 



40 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

and wealth, and that Isaac is his sole heir, as also 
of all the wondrous interpositions by which Jehovah 
had marked out Rebekah as the destined bride. 
The family consent to the marriage ; the maiden her- 
self is willing to go ; and without any delay, — for the 
servant is anxious to fulfil his mission, — she sets out 
with him on his return, trusts herself to his protec- 
tion and guidance across the dreary desert, cheered 
doubtless by many a detail of the greatness and pa- 
ternal kindness of Abraham, and of the gentleness 
and love of Isaac, as they travel together. 

In this interesting transaction, we have not only 
a picture of the pastoral life of antiquity drawn with 
inimitable simplicity and beauty by the pen of inspi- 
ration, and valuable moral and spiritual instruction 
given in a lively and attractive manner, — but also 
a precious type of the greatest mystery of grace, the 
preparation of the Church of Christ, and her presen- 
tation to Him. The Father loveth the Son, even 
that only-begotten and well-beloved Son whom He 
hath once given up, with his own free and perfect 
consent, as a sacrifice. He " hath given all things 
into his hand," so that the Son can say, " All things 
that the Father hath are mine." But to consummate 
the joy, the Father determines to " make a marriage 
for his Son," and having chosen a bride out of 
a distant land, He sends forth the Holy Ghost to 
persuade her to " forget her own people and her 
father's house." He, in obedience to the Fathers 
will, finds her out, tells her of all the glory of the 
Father's house, which is also the glory of Jesus, and 
thus makes her willing to forsake all, and to travel 
through the wilderness with Him for her guide and 



BABYLON. 41 

comforter. Then he covers her with a spotless robe 
of righteousness, and adorns her with ' gifts and 
graces, the pledge-jewels of Jesus' love, and of her 
betrothal to Him ; and thus He conducts her home, 
cheering her as she goes along with thoughts of Him 
to whom she is going ; " taking of the things that are 
his and showing them to her," and " showing her 
things to come," even the glory which she shall 
share, when, presented at length as a chaste virgin to 
Christ, the marriage day shall come, and she shall be 
manifested as one with Him, in everlasting union, to 
the praise of his glorious grace. 



-x 

DANIEL II. 

The most renowned city of antiquity was Babylon. 
We have already glanced at its early foundation by 
Nimrod, the grandson of Ham, and the confusion of 
which it was the scene. We will now look at it as it 
was in its maturity, " the golden city," " the lady of 
kingdoms," " the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency." 

It was situated in a vast plain watered by two 
great rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, the former 
of which ran through its centre, dividing it into two 
portions. It& form was that of a square of 480 stadia 
or 60 miles in circumference, each side being 15 
miles in length. A wall encompassed it 350 feet 
in height, and 87 in thickness. An idea may be 
formed of this wall, by comparing it with the dome 
of St. Paul's, which is about equal in height, and by 
saying that its breadth w T as considerably more than 
half as much again as that of London Bridge. A 






42 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

moat surrounded the whole, deep and wide, and 
always filled with clear water from the Euphrates. 
We must not suppose that the whole of the immense 
space within the walls was occupied, as it would be 
in a modern European city, with streets and squares ; 
extensive fields were embraced in this area, which 
w T ere intended to supply the inhabitants with corn in 
the event of a siege. A hundred massive gates of 
brass, at regular distances, gave ingress and egress to 
the thousands that were constantly pouring in and 
out of the city ; each of these gates was the extremity 
of a street, which traversed the city in a straight 
line. There were thus fifty streets, intersecting each 
other at right angles, besides lanes and alleys innu- 
merable ; the houses were generally three or four 
stories in height. Transverse avenues led down to 
the river, pierced through a wall or breastwork of 
brick, and closed by smaller brazen gates. The 
Euphrates, which was nearly a quarter of a mile wide, 
was crossed by a bridge of stone. 

In the centre of one of the divisions of this vast 
city, stood that mighty monument of early audacity, 
the Tower of Babel. It seems never to have been 
carried beyond the height which the first builders 
attained ; but the^ topmost turret, the eighth in 
succession, was used as a chapel, and devoted to Bel 
or Belus, the national idol. No statue was in this 
apartment, which contained only a magnificent couch, 
and a table of solid gold ; but in other chambers of 
the buildings, there were colossal images, altars, and 
thrones, of the same precious metal. 

The centre of the other division, separated from 
the former by the river, was occupied by the royal 



BABYLON. 43 

palace. It was a structure of prodigious magnifi- 
cence, one particular of which it may suffice to men- 
tion. The queen of Nebuchadnezzar was a native of 
Media, a mountainous country and well wooded, and 
in these respects the very opposite of Babylonia. To 
please her and gratify her taste for rural scenery, 
this prince formed hanging gardens, terrace above 
terrace, until they equalled the height of the walls of 
the city. These he planted and laid out in the most 
costly manner, with flowers, shrubs, and trees, brought 
from distant parts of his dominions. The most 
gigantic forest-trees flourished in these paradises ; 
for they were built on hollow piers of brickwork, 
sixty feet square, which were filled with earth. Thus 
support to the stupendous structure was afforded, and 
at the same time sufficient space was allowed for the 
roots of the most spreading trees. 

A few years ago an interesting discovery was made 
by our countryman^ Mr. Rich, while exploring the 
ruins of ancient Babylon. In the Mujelib&, a vast 
shapeless heap much like the Birs JSTimroud, supposed 
to have been this royal palace, he excavated one of 
these supporting shafts. It was a " hollow pier, sixty 
feet square, lined with fine brick, laid in bitumen, 
and filled up with earth." 

The fertility of the surrounding country was almost 
without a parallel. Rich by nature, the productive- 
ness of the soil was greatly increased by irrigation, 
the region being crossed by numerous canals that 
connected the waters of the Tigris with those of the 
Euphrates ; and these were again intersected by 
a multitude of smaller channels ; whence the water 
was distributed partly by manual labor and partly 



44: THE^RIVER EUPHRATES. 

by hydraulic engines. Thus the three requisites of 
fertility, a rich soil, abundant moisture, and a hot 
climate, combined to render Babylonia the most 
fruitful region of the whole East. Corn was its chief 
staple ; of which a two-hundred fold increase was the 
common expectation ; and in favorable seasons it 
occasionally reached three hundred ; besides being of 
prodigious size; an astonishing return, which the 
historian is almost afraid to record lest he should be 
suspected of exaggeration. 

And now let us in imagination turn to the centre 
of all this glory, where Nebuchadnezzar, the mightiest 
of earth's monarchs, sits in the marble halls of his 
royal palace. A magnificent apartment extends before 
us, of lofty height and immense length, along each 
side of which runs a series of columns of white 
marble. The broad avenues separated by this colon- 
nade are ceiled with cedar, painted in a rich pattern 
with blue and vermilion, but the still broader central 
area is open to the sky, the clear cloudless azure of 
the serene heavens forming its majestic roof. The 
walls are panelled with enormous slabs of alabaster, 
series above series, the lower compartments sculp- 
tured with eagle-headed figures representing the 
objects of idolatrous worship, or the monarch as the 
high priest engaged with his subordinate priests in 
various acts of religious homage. The upper panels 
are painted in the most vivid colors, representing in 
colossal proportions the exploits, real or imaginary, 
of the monarch himself. In one place he is seen in 
his war chariot leading on his warriors to battle ; in 
another he is slaying with his own hand the adverse 
chieftain ; then he is depicted driving his conquered 



THE PALACE. 



45 



foes before him, and transfixing them with his 
arrows ; or besieging a fortified city ; or fording 
a broad and rapid river ; or returning in triumphal 
pomp to his palace with the trophies of conquest. Or 
the exciting scenes of the battle field are exchanged 
for the sports of hunting ; the royal hunter, like his 
illustrious ancestor, the founder of his kingdom, pur- 




Eagle-Headed Idol. 



sues in his chariot the wild bull and shoots him to 
the heart, or on foot seeks the maned lion in his lair, 



46 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

and engaging him in single combat, slays him with 
his short sword. 

To the upper parts of the marble pillars are attached 
rings of massive silver, through which pass cords of 
purple silk intertwined with silver thread ; on these 
hang curtains richly embroidered with figures and 
scenes analogous to those on the walls, but wrought 
in purple on white silk; they are gathered into 
graceful folds by loops of silken cord, revealing the 
luxuriously cushioned diavns that range along the 
walls. The pavement is of porphyry and alabaster 
set i in various fantastic forms and labyrinthine 
patterns, reflecting from its polished surface the 
glittering columns, the painted figures of the walls, 
and the placid blue sky above all. 

On each side of the portal of this noble hall, stands, 
like a guardian demon, a form of grand and awful 
aspect. The stature is thrice that of man, and the 
proportions are conformable to it. It is one of those 
compound embodiments by which the human mind 
has sought to exhibit to sense the abstract attributes 
of the Divinity. The head and visage are those of 
man, full of intelligence and grandeur ; the body and 
limbs are those of a lion, the representative of 
strength and ferocity ; and from the back rise the 
wings of an eagle, expanding their ample plumes, 
the symbol of clear-sighted omniscience, of omni- 
presence, and of wide dominion.* 

* In the above description we have not scrupled to make use of 
the recent interesting discoveries of the ancient Ninevite marbles. 
In the customs of two nations so nearly related in time, in situation, 
in origin, and in language, as Assyria and Babylon, we may be per- 
mitted, in the absence of any contrary evidence, to suppose a close 



THE COURT. 4? 

At the upper extremity of the room stand in like 
manner two other cherubic figures, and between 
them, on an elevated dais, is placed the royal throne. 
It is constructed of ivory richly carved and inlaid 
with gold ; crouching lions form the arms, and the 
feet terminate in lion's claws. A footstool of similar 
materials stands before it, and above it is suspended 
the winged globe, another symbol of deity. 

On the throne, the centre and object of a homage 
scarcely less than adoration, sits the monarch. He 
is in the prime of vigorous life, a man of tall and 
martial figure, whose noble features bear the impress 
of power, and tell of one born to be a king of kings. 
His commanding height is increased by his conical 
turban, from which long tassels depend behind. He 
is clad in a robe of white linen richly embroidered 
with pictures of his own exploits, and girdled with a 
knotted girdle of twined silk, from which the chased 
haft of a dagger projects, blazing with precious stones. 
Golden figures of the sun, moon, and stars are hung 
as a necklace around his neck, and armlets of the 
same metal, with rams' heads for clasps, encircle his 
muscular arms and wrists, which are otherwise naked. 
His right hand grasps with energy a ponderous mace 
of bronze, fashioned at the end into a globe. 

Eunuchs richly attired stand around the king ; one 
holds over his royal master a parasol of silk ; another 
fans him continually with a tuft of ostrich plumes ; 

similarity. The more so, as the remains of a much more distant 
region, Egypt, exhibit many points of remarkable resemblance. 
The compound forms, in particular, a bestial body with wings and 
a human countenance, are found in the monuments of Nineveh, 
Thebes, and Persepolis. 



48 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

and others carry his arms, his bow and quivers, his 
javelins, his sword and spear, and his shield. 

Priests too are here in groups around the throne : 
they also are clad in embroidered robes, and wear 
caps or turbans, each adorned with a silver horn ; 
they all bear implements of worship, cups, cones of 
the pine-tree, baskets, and other mysterious emblems, 
and some are furnished with ample spreading wings 
attached to their shoulders. Princes and satraps 
clothed in scarlet, and bearing golden chains of 
office, mingle with the priests ; and behind them, 
at respectful distance, are the military chiefs and 
chosen captains, glittering in coats of scale armour, 
with close-fitting helmets of the same falling clown 
over the shoulders and neck, each of them girt with 
his sword upon his thigh, and his spear in his hand. 

Profound silence reigns throughout the hall, and 
every countenance is turned upon the monarch in 
fear and uncertainty. At the foot of the throne are 
six white-bearded men, clad in long white robes, all of 
them with their foreheads on the ground in the most 
abject humiliation. In the midst of them stands a 
youth, tall and comely, indeed, but scarcely arrived 
at man's estate, whose fair and ruddy face shows as 
yet no traces of a beard. In the splendor of that 
court he stands erect and unabashed, not with an 
impudent gaze, but with a noble gravity of demeanour 
that commands involuntary respect. His features 
are not cast in the same mould as those of the com- 
pany around, and when he speaks it is with the 
accent of a stranger ; yet he is clothed with a white 
robe in all respects similar to those of the aged men 
whose faces are on the ground. 



THE GBEAT IMAGE. 49 

Chagrin and anger are strongly depicted in the 
countenance of the monarch ; for he has been per- 
plexed by a dream, the solemn effect of which remains 
on his mind, though the particulars resist all his 
efforts to recall them. In his perplexity he demands 
the aid of his magicians, whose claims to supernatural 
knowledge he commands them to prove by the re- 
production of his vision. But they are helpless, and 
the vehement rage of the king has just been vented 
in threats of degradation and instant death. These 
are the men who, in the most pitiable prostration of 
body and mind, seek to mollify the vehemence of the 
royal indignation. 

In this crisis, the captain of the guard has just 
brought in Daniel, a youthful Jewish captive, in 
whom is the Spirit of the Holy God ; who modestly 
but confidently professes his ability to make known 
to the king both the dream and the interpretation. 
Yet not to himself does he arrogate the glory, nor 
does he pretend to any superior wisdom of his own, 
but points to the Living God as the only revealer of 
secrets, who thus makes known to Nebuchadnezzar 
what shall be in the latter days. 

The subject of the forgotten vision had been a 
great and splendid image. Its head was of fine gold, 
its breast and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of 
brass, its legs of iron, its feet part of iron and part 
of clay. Presently a stone cut out of a mountain 
without hands, smote the image upon its feet, and 
the whole splendid figure instantly crumbled to dust, 
and was carried away by the wind of heaven ; while 
the stone that smote it became a great mountain and 
filled the whole earth. 

3 



50 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

This mysterious vision is now explained by the 
youthful prophet. It was a revelation of the five 
great empires, which commencing with the times 
then present should reach onward to the end of the 
world. 

The Babylonian monarchy was represented by the 
head of this image ; which, on account of its sur- 
passing grandeur, wealth, and magnificence, was 
represented as made of gold. After a little while 
this should be overthrown, and succeeded by another 
kingdom, that of the Medes and Persians, here 
symbolized by the breast and arms of silver ; which 
should be inferior to the former in all that dazzles 
and attracts the attention of this world. But the 
Persian monarchy was destined to yield to the 
Macedonian, represented by the belly and thighs (or 
sides) of brass ; a metal peculiarly suitable to prefigure 
the Grecians, inasmuch as it was the material of 
which their armor was made, (" the brass-coated 
Greeks,") and their dominion, while lacking in 
wealth and splendor, was obtained and supported by 
the extraordinary military power of Alexander. At 
length this also should succumb to the iron monarchy 
of Pome, which despising wealth, magnificence, and 
luxury, should establish its wide dominion by a stern, 
unrelenting, ferocious valor, grinding the nations 
without pity or mercy. The government, so long 
vested in two equal consuls and at length in two 
emperors, might be well expressed by the legs of the 
image, and the ten toes might prefigure the ten 
Gothic kingdoms into which the whole empire should 
at length be broken up. Some of these kingdoms 
are powerful, retaining the old iron character of 



THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 51 

martial Rome ; others are weak and degenerate, fit 
only to be compared to miry clay. 

Here then is an epitome of the world's history 
from the epoch of King Nebuchadnezzar. It reaches 
down to us ; for the ten monarchies of the Roman 
world, which have existed now for twelve centuries, 
have not yet passed away. We stand then upon the 
very extremity of the last division of the great image ; 
not only upon the toes, but, so to speak, upon the 
very tips of the toes. What a solemn thing it is to 
look into God's infallible almanack of prophetic 
history, and to see our own place there. For we 
cannot but perceive that, according to the vision, the 
dominion of these ten kingdoms is not to run on 
indefinitely, but to come to a sudden, violent, and 
total extinction. 

The fifth kingdom, represented by the mighty 
stone, was to differ in important respects from the 
preceding four. They were earthly in their origin and 
character, this was to be heavenly ; they were cha- 
racterized by qualities that the natural mind appreci- 
ates, — splendour, riches, magnificence, military skill, 
and brutal force ; this, like a small stone from the 
face of a mountain seems worthless and mean, yet it 
shall fill the whole earth : they were each destined to 
pass away, and yield to a superior ; this shall never 
be removed, but shall stand for ever. The stone is 
the Lord Jesus Christ, despised and cast out by men, 
but elect and precious in the sight of God, and 
destined to " grind to powder" (Matt. xxi. 44) whom- 
soever it shall fall upon. The world is pluming itself 
on its advancing liberty, its discoveries, its science, 
its intellect, its power ;- and is flattering itself with 



52 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

the hope of ages of prosperity to come ; " to-morrow 
shall be as this day, and much more abundant." But 
what says the great dial of Prophecy % The circle of 
its hours is well-nigh completed, and its silent finger 
is pointing to a period that cannot be far off, when 
"the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the 
gold," all that is considered great and valuable by 
the world, shall be "broken to pieces, and become like 
the chaff of the summer threshing-floors," by him 
whose name it loves not to hear, and whose authority 
it rejects and scorns. 

Yet most blessed it is to the Christian, the " scribe 
instructed in the things of the kingdom of heaven," 
to know that the reign of his Lord and Saviour is 
fast approaching. With the world's glory he has, or 
ought to have, no fellowship, as well knowing who is 
the " prince" and " god of this world ;" nor can he 
regret that its termination is nigh, seeing that it has 
ever been in opposition to the glory of Jesus. Mean- 
while, his duty is now quiet subjection to authorities 
and powers for the Lord's sake ; not resisting evil, 
nor seeking to set right by force that which he sees 
wrong ; contented to suffer with Christ, knowing that 
he shall also reign with Him. 

" Babylon, with its eagle-wings of pride, has ap- 
peared and fallen. Persia, with its two-fold dynasty, 
has succeeded in its turn. The mighty invasion of 
Xerxes has been fulfilled and become the theme of 
poets and orators, a proverb of history, for more than 
two thousand years. The empire of Macedon, and 
the triumphs of Alexander, have appeared on the 
shifting scene of history, and vanished away. Pome, 
the fourth and mightiest empire, strong as iron, has 



THE CAPTIVES. 53 

risen to power, and after stamping its name deep on 
the world's calendar, has been broken as here an- 
nounced, and lived on, though rent and divided, 
surrounded w T ith the monuments of its departing 
glory. And thus, in the steady sweep of Providence, 
we are brought to the verge of that predicted king- 
dom which shall not be given to another people, but 
wherein the dominion shall be given to the saints of 
the Most High, and they shall reign for ever and 
ever. If such glorious hopes of the triumph of 
Divine goodness in this lower world dazzle and con- 
found us by their brightness when they are set before 
us in general and abstract promises, here they are 
blended in with the whole range of history ; and all 
the events recorded in profane historians, and by the 
orators and poets of Greece and Rome, become so 
many pledges to us of that everlasting kingdom 
which God has promised to them that love him. 
Our hopes may thus rove freely through all the 
magnificent range of coming ages of blessedness, and 
yet, all the time, retain a firm anchor-hold upon 
every main event of recorded history for two thousand 
years."* 



PSALM CXXXVII. JEREMIAH LI. 

Beneath the willows that droop their long pendent 
branches into the murmuring river, as if weeping in 
sympathy with those that seek their sombre shade, 
sit a group of mourners. They are strangers in a 

* Bilks' Elem. of Prophecy, p. 429. 



54 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

strange land, the captive daughters of Judah, who 
have sought a brief respite from the insulting scorn 
of their cruel oppressors, demanding mirth from their 
broken hearts. How can they sing the Lord's song 
in a strange land % or how shall they tune their harps 
to the praise of that Name which the haughty heathen 
only demand to hear that they may treat it with 
derision ? They have hanged their harps upon the 
willows, where the mournful breeze sighing through 
the branches sweeps over the strings and awakens 
low and plaintive chords, in unison with their sor- 
rowful thoughts. 

They sit in silence, for their hearts are too heavy 
for converse : their heads are covered with their long 
enveloping veils, or they bury their faces in their 
hands, while the tears flow fast from their eyes. They 
remember Zion ; the happy days when they dwelt in 
her palaces, clothed in scarlet, with many delights ; 
when the noise of the pipe, and the tabret, and the 
viol was in their feasts, and their light hearts 
thought not of the approach of evil. They remember 
the glorious temple, the perfection of beauty, the joy 
of the whole earth ; its priestly ministrations, its 
holy service ; where they habitually went up to join 
in the solemn worship, and to swell the pealing 
chorus of praise that ascended to Jehovah from 
assembled multitudes keeping holy-day. But the 
spoiler has been let loose upon Zion ; her palaces 
and her strongholds lie level with the ground ; and 
the adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her 
pleasant things : a fire hath been kindled in Zion, 
and hath devoured even its foundations. The house 
of the Lord is utterly desolate, it is overthrown and 



THE CAPTIVES. 55 

burned with fire ; Jehovah hath abhorred his sanc- 
tuary, and given it into the hand of the heathen ; 
He hath despised, in the indignation of his anger, 
the king and the priest. The sons and daughters of 
Jerusalem, the thousands of Judah, are violently 
carried away captive ; and the city sits solitary that 
was full of people. No daily lamb smokes on the 
brazen altar ; no songs ascend now from the courts 
of the Lord's house ; silence is within those black- 
ened walls, for they who were wont with joy to 
minister there have sprinkled with their blood its 
hallowed stones, or are sitting in the dust in sack- 
cloth and ashes, in this alien land. The proud 
idolater has triumphed in the heritage of Jehovah, 
and blasphemously" ascribed his success to his sense- 
less idols. 

Ah ! these are sad recollections for the poor piling 
captives ; but there are thoughts that will obtrude 
themselves, that are far, far more bitter. Why m 
Jehovah thus dishonoured, his sanctuary polluted, 
his worship profaned, his city destroyed, his people 
carried into captivity ? Hath his promise failed J 
hath He forgotten his faithfulness, or was He not 
able to maintain his own cause against the proud 
ones of the earth ? It is for Israel's sin, that the 
Lord is wroth with his inheritance. His people 
have apostatized from Him, and turned to idols. 
" My people, 55 saith Jehovah, " have committed two 
evils ; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living 
waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, 
that can hold no water. 55 Yet has He borne long 
with them ; He has solemnly admonished them, has 
sent unto them his prophets, with invitations to 



56 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

return to Him, with gracious offers of free forgive- 
ness and full reconciliation, and with awful threaten- 
ings of his wrath if they persisted in disobedience. 
He has abundantly shown that judgment is his 
strange work, and that He delighteth in mercy. But 
they despised his long-suffering, poured contempt on 
his messages, stoned his prophets, and laughed to 
scorn his threatened wrath, till at length it arose, 
and there was no remedy. And now the rebellious 
people of God are in their enemies' land, left to 
mourn over their terrible sin and its consequences, 
if so be they will turn in their distress to Him from 
whom they have deeply revolted. 

Meanwhile, Jehovah will take care of his own 
honour : brief shall be the scornful boasting of the 
heathen whom He hath used as the rod wherewith 
to smite his people ; yet a little while, and Babylon, 
the queen of kingdoms, that saith, " I shall be a lady 
for ever," shall become a perpetual desolation. The 
dreadful doom is already pronounced : Jehovah will 
soon avenge himself on the senseless idols ; Bel shall 
bow down, Nebo shall stoop, and on the backs of 
weary beasts shall go into captivity. Babylon, the 
proud, the mighty city, whose walls tower up to 
heaven, shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for 
dragons, an astonishment and a hissing,, without 
inhabitant. 

Yonder comes one of the princes of the royal line 
of Judah ; as he slowly walks along the rushy brink 
of the river, he often turns to gaze upon the lofty 
walls and loftier towers, the temples, and palaces, 
and brazen gates of the queenly city, and then takes 
a parchment roll from the bosom of his robe, and 



SERAIAHS MISSION. 57 

reads awhile therein. He approaches the willow- 
shade where the mourning captives sit, and addresses 
them in language of sympathy and consolation. He 
speaks of the covenant love of Him whose hand is 
heavy upon them,- — of his willingness to receive the 
penitent mourner, of his promise to hear the prayer 
of his people when in their enemies' land, and to 
turn their captivity ; and gives them something to 
hope for, in the assurance that God hath recently 
limited the bondage of his people to seventy years. 
Then he speaks of the magnificent city before them, 
— how he has been round about it, to survey its 
strength, grandeur, luxury, pride, idolatry, cruelty, 
and sensuality ; and tells them that he is the mes- 
senger of the Divine doom to guilty Babylon. And 
now T he takes from his bosom the roll of prophetic 
woe, which has been committed to him by the vene- 
rable Jeremiah, and reads its awful burden in their 
hearing. Yet a little w T hile, and this glorious city 
shall be utterly thrown down, and become a burnt 
mountain. It shall be overthrown like Sodom and 
Gomorrah, and be utterly desolate and forsaken. 
A great nation shall be raised up against her from 
the north, who shall rush upon her as a chafed lion 
driven from his thicket by the swelling of Jordan ; a 
cruel nation, who will show no mercy ; who will 
break her idols in pieces, slay her valiant men, and 
dash upon the stones her children. Her mighty 
river, her boast and pride, the source of her pros- 
perity, shall be the instrument of her overthrow ; for 
it shall be dried up before the advancing host, and its 
channel shall be their high road into the city. The 
brazen gates shall open their ponderous valves to the 

3* 



58 THE KIVER EUPHRATES. 

conqueror, and he shall enter into the streets before 
the inhabitants are aware. One post shall run to 
meet another, to tell the King of Babylon that his 
city is taken at each end ; that the passages are 
stopped, that the reeds are burned with fire, and that 
the men of war are affrighted. Angnish shall take 
hold of the monarch, and he and all his host shall 
utterly perish. Jehoyah hath decreed wrath against 
Babylon, till it be wholly desolate ; every one that 
goeth by shall be astonished at her plagues. " It 
shall never be inhabited, from generation to genera- 
tion : neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there ; 
neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. 
But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there ; and 
their houses shall be full of doleful creatures ; and 
owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. 
And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their 
desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant pa- 
laces." She shall be cast up as heaps ; she shall be 
destroyed utterly ; nothing of her shall be left. 

These awful predictions, w T ith many details, appa- 
rently little likely to be fulfilled npon the flourishing 
metropolis of the world, the Divine messenger reads 
aloud ; and, having finished, he binds a ponderous 
stone to the roll, and heaves it far into the bosom of 
the Euphrates. The surging waters close over it, 
and, as it sinks, the prophet lifts up his right hand 
to heaven, saying, — " Thus shall that great city 
Babylon sink, to rise no more !"■ 



BELSHAZZAR ? S FEAST. 59 



DANIEL V. 

Years passed on, and the words which Seraiah had 
leered . were remembered — if remembered a^ all — by 
the Babylonians, only as the ravings of an angry 
enthusiast. The captives, too, had waited ipr their 
accomplishment, till they were weary of expecting, 
^»^and *n^t of ^em hadrnqw forgotten them. But not > • 

one jot or one tittle of God's word, whether of pro- • 
mise orjbljjjQg^ningi carue^er faii; andvtjiere waerji a** ** 

few aged men in Babylon, who still treasured up the 
words of solemn import, and expected, with an 
earnest faith, their entire fulfilment. They remem- 
bered, also, the promised limitation of the captivity 
to seventy years, which period had now elapsed since 
Nebuchadnezzar's first capture of Jerusalem. 

The sound of revelry and mirth is in the royal 
palace, for there, in the magnificent hall where for- 
merly Nebuchadnezzar received the message from 
heaven, Belshazzar the king has made a feast to a 
thousand of his lords. It is night ; but hundreds 
of lamps, fed with perfumed oil, and suspended by 
chains of gold, illuminate the glittering scene, ^rid 
almost put out the radiance of the stars, that sparkle 
in .thj^purple sky above the heads of the revellers. 
Heaps of fragrant wood are burning on tripois of 
• bronze, and mingle their rich odours with that of the 
* sweet lotus-lily, that is set in porcelain vases, or 
hung in negligent wregfths around in the greatest 
profusion. The charms of music are not wanting ; 
the tabret and viol, the pipe and the harp, unite with 
many voices of men and women, — now in martial 



60 



THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 



strains extolling the valour of the king, now sinking 
to softer melody, melting the soul to love. For on 
the embroidered couches recline many of the beauties 
of the Babylonian court, gracing with the charm of 
loveliness, if not of modesty, the festive scene. The 
incense, the music, and the wine, are doing tlieir 
work ; the mirth is boisterous ; the loud blasphemy 
or obscenity provokes the louder laugh, and the king 
is the merriest reveller of all. The grim counte- 
nances of the demon-gods around seem, to glare with 
a fiendish expression, and the shadowy forms of his 
royal ancestors frown down in silence from their 
lofty panels. 

A sudden thought strikes the monarch's mind ; 
and, amidst the drunken approbation of his guests, 




^>k.^k $>^ 



% 

Ancient Cups. 



he commands to be brought the sacred vessels of 
gold anthsilver, which had been plundered from the 







THE WRITING ON THE WALL. 61, 

temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem. Hitherto they had 
been preserved untouched ; for Nebuchadnezzar, 
who had taken them away, had abstained from pro- 
faning them. The vessels are brought, and filled with 
sparkling wine ; and while the unhallowed lips of the 
king, his princes, and his ladies, inhale the draught, 
the song of praise goes up from a thousand voices, 
to the helpless iddls of gold, and silver, and stone. 

But what has suddenly arrested the monarch's 
loud laugh, and thrown an ashy paleness over his 
lately flushed cheek ? See, how his frame trembles, 
as he clutches at the table for support ; how his 
white lips quiver, and how his eyes are starting from 
their sockets, as they stare upon the w^all beside him ! 
The uproar of the board is hushed, and every face is 
turned to the spot ; and there, upon the alabaster 
wall, in the full glare of the great central lamp, is 
seen a cloudy hand. Slowly those ghostly fingers 
move along, and trace upon the polished slab, in the 
sight of the paralysed throng, mysterious characters ; 
every letter distinctly visible, and flashing with corus- 
cations of ghastly light. 

The king cries aloud for his astrologers and sooth- 
sayers, offering the highest honours and rewards to 
him w r ho shall decipher and interpret the mysterious 
writing. But the astrologers and soothsayers can only 
gaze in mute dismay ; for all their wisdom is vain and 
worthless here. The confusion and terror have reached 
the apartments of the venerable widow of Nebuchad- 
nezzar, who, though she w r ould not give the sanction of 
her countenance to the indecent revelries of her grand- 
son, approaches, in the hour of his anguish, to admi- 
nister counsel and consolation. She remembers the 



62 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

heavenly wisdom of the Hebrew Daniel, when in his 
youth he interpreted the vision of the king, that had 
baffled all the skill of Babylon ; and she expresses 
her confident assurance that he will be able both to 
read and to interpret the mysterious writing. 

And now, by the royal mandate, Daniel appears ; 
not as when we first saw him in this hall, in the 
bloom of flowery youth, but bearing the burden of 
fourscore years. He listens to the king's demand, 
declines the proffered honours, but declares his 
ability to read the inscription. But first he faith- 
fully rebukes the pride, ingratitude, idolatry and 
blasphemy, which, refusing to profit by lessons of 
mercy, have provoked the righteous vengeance of the 
living God. The conscience-stricken monarch trem- 
bles under the word ; he can offer no extenuation of 
his crimes, thus set in order before him ; but the 
joints of his loins are loosed, and his knees smite one 
against another, as he gazes on the cloudy fingers, 
slowly writing what he feels to be his own awful doom. 

At length the hand has vanished, but the writing 
remains ; and the Prophet reads the words, 

" MENE, MENE, TEKEL, TJPHARSIN." 

And this is the interpretation : — 

"Mene, — God hath numbered thy kingdom, and 
finished it. 

" Tekel, — Thou art weighed in the balances, and 
art found wanting. 

" Peres,* — Thy kingdom is divided, and given 
to the Medes and Persians." 

* The words literally signify " Number, number, weight, and 
divisions." Peres and Upharsin are essentially the same word, 



THE SIEGE OF BABYLON. 63 

Scarcely had the word of doom left the Prophet's 
lips, before it was executed. In that night was King 
Belshazzar slain. 

All through this reign there had been war between 
Babylon and the advancing power of the Medes and 
Persians. Cyrus, the Persian conqueror, had gradu- 
ally been subduing the surrounding nations, and the 
provinces of this kingdom, until at length this ancient 
and mighty city was the only place that held out 
against his victorious arms. Two years had the siege 
of Babylon now lasted ; but such was the strength 
of the city, so high and massive the w^alls, so im- 
pregnable the fortifications, so great the number of 
warriors, so abundant tbe supplies of all kinds of 
provisions, that no hope seemed to exist that ever 
*Cyrus would be able to eifect an entrance. He had 
at first attempted to take it by assault, but in vain ; 
and latterly had contented himself with cutting 
around it a trench, both wide and deep, ^hoping to 
starve it into surrender. But the city was provisioned 
for twenty years, and had besides open land enough Vs 
within the walls, both for pasture and tillage, to 
supply the inhabitants for an* indefinite period. The f 

river, moreover, wasjfchere so broad, that ships 
keeping in the middle of the cnarmel couM enter 
the city both frpm above and below ; and thu^tfie 
besiegers had the mortification of seeing sirj^rffis 

Peres being the radical word, the prefix u being merely flp^ ft^ula- V > 

tive"and"; ph and pare the same letter; the vowels are dubious, 
1 and the affi^pctis the Chalde^ plural termination. There is^a sort \^ 

of pun or paronomasia in the last term, the word Peres (oi&) sig- 
_ nifyii^ Persia, as welk as divide ; and the plural form may have 

expressed, as in^tn enigma? me dovrole application. * > # % 



> 



»%4fcV -* 




04 



THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 



continually brought in, without being able to pre- 
vent it. 

At length stratagem succeeded where force had 
failed. Having learned that a great festival was ap- 
proaching, which the Babylonians were accustomed to 
keep by devoting the whole night to revelry, drunken- 
ness, and all sorts of disorder, Cyrus determined to 







Cyrus twkes Babylon. 



surprise them in the midst of their debaucheries. 
GruPof the great works of Nebuchadnezzar had been 
the construction of an artificial lake above the city, 
for the sake of receiving the superfluous waters of 
the Euphrates in the annual floods. This, lake was 
square, fifty-two miles every way, or upwards of two 
hundred in circumference, and in depth thirty-five 
feet ; so that it was capable of holding an immense 



^7 



| 






THE LAST NIGHT OF BABYLON. # 65 

volume of water. Into this lake Cvrus determined 
to draw off the water of the Euphrates, and enter 
the city through the bed of the river. In the even- 
ing of this eventful night he sent up a party of men 
to cut the dam that separated the river from the 
lake, and then dividing his forces into two parts, 
he posted one division at the point where the river 
entered the city, and the other where it issued from 
it. Some hours elapsed before the waters were 
sufficiently shrunken to be fordable, though the 
Persian general had opened also his great trench. 
About midnight, however, the soldiers were able to 
march in the diminished stream, and entered the 
city. In the neglect and disorder of the festival, the 
brazen gates that led from the streets to the river 
had been carelessly left open, so that the armies met 
with no impediment, but marched up into the streets. 
The two parties met, according to agreement, at the 
royal palace, where they surprised the half-intoxicated 
guards, and soon despatched them. 

The king, trembling under the judgment just pro- 
nounced upon himself and his kingdom, heard the 
noise from within, and commanded some to see what 
it meant. But no sooner was the great gate opened, 
than the victorious Persians rushed in and took the 
palace ; and the wretched monarch and his thousand 
lords were all put to the sword. 

Thus did Jehovah avenge his own honour; and 
thus did he, according to his predictions, in the most 
marvellous manner, accomplish his purpose upon 
Babylon ; and thus did he effect the deliverance of 
his people from captivity, after the lapee, as predicted, 
of exactly seventy years. 



66 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

The glory of Babylon did not altogether depart 
when it was taken by Cyrus, though it then began to 
decline. The removal of the seat of empire to 
Shushan degraded it from the metropolis of the 
world to the head of a province; yet it still con- 
tinued to retain its wealth, its grandeur, its temples, 
its sumptuous palaces, and its impregnable walls. 
The pride of strength impelled its inhabitants to 
revolt from Darius, the successor of Cyrus, and to 
raise the standard of independence. For several 
years they had been laying up stores, and when the 
Persian monarch brought up his army, they did not 
attempt to meet him in the field, but, shutting their 
hundred gates, defied his power. The horrible 
cruelty of putting the women and children to death, 
to save their provisions, leaving only one woman and 
a maid-servant in every house, did not avail them ; 
for, by the stratagem of a pretended deserter from 
the Persian army, the gates were opened, after a 
siege of one year and eight months. 

Now the queenly city was farther humbled ; for 
the conqueror took away the hundred brazen gates, 
and beat down the lofty walls from two hundred 
cubits to a fourth part of that height. The spoil 
of the city was given up to the Persian army, and 
three thousand of the revolters were impaled. 

A third time was Babylon taken by Alexander the 
Great. It no longer trusted in its fortifications, for the 
Persian commander surrendered it into the conqueror's 
hands without a blow. Its degradation was sufficiently 
proved when the inhabitants flocked upon the walls 
to see their new king take possession, unresisted, of 
their city. Here Alexander died soon afterwards. 



SUBSEQUENT HISTORY. 67 

Jehovah had declared that he would make Babylon 
" a possession for the bittern, and pools of water," 
and that " the sea should come up upon her, and she 
should be covered with the multitude of the waves 
thereof." The breaking down of the dam, by Cyrus, 
fulfilled in a remarkable manner these predictions ; 
for when the lake was filled, the water of the river, 
still continuing to enter at the breach, soon over- 
flowed and deluged the surrounding country, spread- 
ing ruin and desolation over the whole region to the 
west of the Euphrates. From the same cause, the 
current of the river that passed through the city was 
so greatly diminished, as scarcely to suffice for the 
smallest boats, though large vessels used to navigate 
it. Alexander, who intended to make Babylon the 
seat of his empire, began to rebuild the dam, with 
a design to remedy the evil ; but his death put a stop 
to-the work, which was never afterwards undertaken. 
Even now the western bank of the Euphrates, at 
this part, is not discernible, and the river flows un- 
restrained over the country, turning it into a vast 
morass, which remains covered with water long after 
the general subsidence of the stream. 

This doomed city was again taken by Demetrius, 
the son of Antigonus, who ravaged the whole pro- 
vince. But its utter desolation w r as now at hand ; 
for Seleucus soon afterwards built the city Seleucia, 
on the Tigris, which in a short time grew to vast size 
and grandeur. The shallowness of the Euphrates, 
and the inundation of the surrounding country, had 
made Babylon so inconvenient, that the new city 
soon drained it of its remaining inhabitants ; a result 
which was aided by the political and municipal 



C8 



THE RIVEK EUPHRATES, 




L'fmrons of Ancient Babylon. 



SUBSEQUENT HISTORY. 69 

privileges conferred by Seleucus upon his own city. 
Thus in a short time afterwards Babylon became 
wholly deserted and desolate, nothing remaining of 
her but the empty houses and walls. 

These remains of her ancient grandeur, however, 
resisted for many centuries the general ruin ; for the 
walls, at least, were still standing in the fourth 
century after Christ. They served a singular pur- 
pose ; for the whole area of the ancient city was 
turned into a park of wild beasts by the Parthian 
kings, who took their sport within the enclosure, the 
walls being preserved and repaired as the fence of 
this royal domain. 

After this we hear no more of Babylon, till the 
twelfth century, when Benjamin of Tudela found 
nothing left but " some ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's 
Palace," which men were afraid to approach, " by 
reason of the many serpents and scorpions that were 
there." In the sixteenth century, Kauw T olf found 
some arches and ruins of the bridge which had once 
connected the parts of the city, on the opposite banks 
of the river, as well as the ruins of the palace, which, 
he also says, were full of venomous reptiles. Still 
more recently, the place has been often visited, and its 
present condition we shall hereafter briefly describe. 
Perhaps there is no spot upon the world's surface so 
awfully desolate as the silent plain of Shinar, strewn 
with its burnt and vitrified mounds, where once proud 
Babylon reared her diademed head to the skies, the 
centre whither thronged busy multitudes — the me- 
tropolis of the glory, wealth, and power of the world ! 



70 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

The Euphrates, whose history we have been tracing, 
is a great and majestic river, rolling its noble flood of 
waters through a course of nearly 2,000 miles from 
its sources in the mountains of Armenia to its termi- 
nation at the head of the Persian Gulf. Two springs 
divide the honour of its origin ; the more western, ♦ 
known as the Kara-su, rises a little to the north of 
Erzeroum ; the other, or eastern branch, which bears 
the name of the Murad-chai, flows from a point near 
Bayazid, far to the east. The name of Phrat (Eu- 
phrates), by which this magnificent river was dis- 
tinguished in the very earliest times, and which it 
still bears, is said to signify either fruitfulness or 
dispersion, the former term descriptive of the country 
through which it flows, the latter commemorative of 
its early history. The name appears to be applied 
to each of the branches, with the respective additions 
of Western or Eastern Phrat. 

After flowing through many a wild glen and fertile 
valley of the mountainous Armenia, the two streams 
unite into one channel at the foot of the mountains, 
separated only by a narrow ridge from the source of 
the Tigris ; and presently the full river precipitates 
itself through a cleft in this ridge, and pursues its 
way, hemmed in by lofty precipices, and interrupted 
by many bristling rocks, foaming rapids and cascades. 
Its course is now nearly due south, and thus it forms 
the western boundary of the ancient Naharaim or 
Mesopotamia. On the east bank of the river is the 
modern town of Bir, and not far from it is Urfah, 
considered to be the Ur of the Chaldees, the birth- 
place of Abraham. Not far from Bir, therefore, 
we may suppose to be the spot where the patriarch 



TOPOGRAPHY. 



71 



crossed the stream on his pilgrimage, as already 
narrated. 

The town of Bir has been visited by Mr. Bucking- 
ham, to whose Travels we are indebted for the accom- 
panying representation of its appearance. It contains 
about 4,000 inhabitants, and 400 houses, built on the 
side of a very steep hill. The Euphrates is here a 
strong and rapid river. Its width varies, at different 




Bir, 



seasons of the year, from 600 to 200 yards. Eauwolf, 
in 1575, considered it a mile broad ; but Maundrell and 
Buckingham agree in comparing it with the Thames 
at London. The water is turbid, of a dull yellowish 
colour, and soon deposits an earthy sediment, if 
allowed to stand. The stream cannot be forded here ; 
but large boats are wed to ferry passengers and 
merchandise ; and the natives often cross upon an 



72 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

inflated goatskin, which they tightly clasp with their 
hands, propelling themselves with the feet. 

The Euphrates, now freed from all obstacles, main- 
tains a steady and majestic course through a wide 
and verdant valley, and soon takes the south-east 
direction, which it afterwards pursues to the sea. 
Little of interest detains us on its banks till it enters 
the great Plain of Shinar, except the bituminous 
fountains of Hit, noticed by Herodotus, which are 
situated about seventy miles above. Through a level 
and now barren country, but once rich w^ith luxuriant 
vegetation, and everywhere covered with cultivation, 
the ancient river still flows on, till the ruins of old 
Babylon rise in uncouth and shapeless mounds upon 
the view. The traveller, at first sight, might suppose 
them to be natural hills of earth or rock ; so immense 
are they, yet so shapeless, and so utterly unlike any 
work of human art. On close examination, however, 
their true character is discovered. On the east side 
of the river are two large mounds, and several 
smaller ones, formed by the decomposition of 
buildings, furrowed and channelled by the rains of 
centuries, and strewn with fragments of brick, 
bitumen, and pottery. To the north of these is an 
extensive heap, called Mujelibe, or "the overturned," 
about 140 feet in height, and half a mile in circum- 
ference. Traces of chambers, passages, and cellars 
are discernible ; but all is a mass of confusion ; 
" wild beasts and doleful creatures cry in the deso- 
late houses, and dragons are in the pleasant palaces ;" 
venomous reptiles of various kinds being very nume- 
rous in the ruins. 

In another part of the ruins on this side of the 



THE RUINED PALACE. 73 

river stands the kasr or palace, a remarkable pile of 
brick architecture, so surprisingly fresh, that it was 
only on a careful and minute examination that Mr. 
Rich could be satisfied of its being a remnant of 
ancient Babylon. It consists of several thick walls, 
strengthened with buttresses, built of fine burnt 
brick, still perfectly clean and sharp, imbedded in 
lime-cement of such tenacity that it is almost im- 
possible to extract a brick whole. Parts of it are 
split and overthrown, as if by an earthquake, and 
the whole is enveloped in an enormous mass of 
rubbish. Near it is an ancient tree, which the Arabs 
believe to have grown in Babylon itself, and to have 
survived its desolation. " It stands on a kind of 
ridge ; one side of its trunk, wdth verdant branches 
at the top, alone remains. The branches waving in 
the wind produce a melancholy rustling sound. It 
is an evergreen, something resembling the lignum 
vitse, and not common in Babylon. A tree of the 
same kind is said to grow at Bassorah." 

On the western side of the Euphrates is the Birs 
Nimroud, " the most stupendous and surprising 
mass of all the ruins of Babylon." It is about ten 
miles to the south-west of the Mujelibe, and about 
six west of the river. But this wondrous remnant of 
antiquity we have already described in the words of 
Mr. Rich. 

Travellers who have visited these majestic ruins 
speak in striking language of the awful impression 
which they convey, as forming an irrefragable proof 
of the power and omniscience of God, and of the 
truth of his prophetic word. " I cannot portray," 
says Captain Mignan, " the overpowering sensation 

4 



74 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

of reverential awe that possessed my mind, while 
contemplating the extent and magnitude of ruin and 
devastation on every side." And on first entering 
its ruins, Sir Robert Ker Porter observes, " I could 
not but feel an indescribable awe in thus passing, as 
it were, into the gates of fallen Babylon." 

The following vivid picture of the whole scene, 
drawn on the spot, is from the pen of the accom- 
plished writer just named. " The whole view was 
particularly solemn. The majestic stream of the 
Euphrates, wandering in solitude, like a pilgrim 
monarch, through the silent ruins of his devastated 
kingdom, still appeared a noble river, under all the 
disadvantages of its desert-tracked course. Its banks 
were hoary with weeds, and the grey osier-willows 
w r ere yet there, on which the captives of Israel hung 
up their harps, and, while Jerusalem was not, refused 
to be comforted. But how has the rest of the scene 
changed since then ? At that time, those broken 
hills were palaces — those long undulating mounds, 
streets — this vast solitude filled with the busy 
subjects of the proud daughter of the east. Now, 
wasted with misery, her habitations are not to 
be found ; and, for herself, the worm is spread over 
her."* 

Nearly opposite to the awful " burnt mountain" 
the Birs Nimroud, stands the modern town of Hillah. 
It is built on both sides of the river, which is here 
not more than 430 feet wide, (so is "the flood" 
diminished !) across which communication is main- 
tained by a floating bridge of pontoons. The town 
is pleasantly situated amidst gardens and groves of 

* Travels, ii. 237. 



THE LATE EXPEDITION. 



75 



date-palms ; it is fortified, and contains about 7,000 
inhabitants. Much of it, including its wall and 




Hillah. 



numerous towers, is built of bricks, dug out of the 
ruins of Babylon. 

After passing another town, called Siik-el Shuyukh, 
which contains 10,000 inhabitants, the Euphrates 
unites its majestic stream with that of its rival in 
celebrity, the Tigris, at a place called Korna, whence 
the united river forms a tidal channel, about half-a- 
mile wide, called the Shat-el-Arab, or the river of 
Arabia, until about 100 miles farther down it reaches 
the Persian Gulf. A little above its debouchure, it 
passes the commercial city of Bassorah, containing 
about 20,000 inhabitants. 

The late expedition under the command of Colonel 
Chesney, has greatly increased our knowledge of the 
Euphrates and the Tigris. The object was the 



76 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

establishment of steam communication with India, 
through one of these rivers, from the head of the 
Mediterranean. The materials and engines of two 
large iron steamers were, with immense labour, 
transported across the Syrian desert, to the Euphrates, 
near the town of Bir, where they were put together. 
They were named after the names of the rivers, the 
Euphrates and the Tigris. The latter, unhappily, was 
overwhelmed and sunk in a dreadful hurricane, with 
the greater part of her brave crew; the former 
explored the river after which she was named, to its 
mouth ; and then ascended the Tigris, to a distance 
of 400 miles above its junction with its sister 
stream. 

In a course of 1,850 miles, from a lofty moun- 
tainous region, on the shores of the Black Sea, to 
the level plains at the head of the Persian Gulf, 
there must be considerable diversity in climate and 
productions. Near the sources of the river, the cold 
is severe in winter, and the snow has been known to 
be two feet deep, and sufficiently drifted to bear a 
horse. Yet the valleys in summer are excessively 
hot, from the radiation of the sun's rays from the 
mountain sides. In the plains, the thermometer 
frequently rises in summer to 115° in the shade. Mr. 
Rich has seen it as high as 120° in the day, and 110° 
at night. The whole plain is subject to violent 
storms, one of which overwhelmed the Tigris steamer, 
as already mentioned. 

The geological character of the mountainous re- 
gions is pretty uniform. Igneous rocks, of the later 
formations, predominate, with some of granitic 
structure. They are rich in metallic deposits. Mines 



NATURAL HISTORY. 77 

of gold, silver, lead, copper and iron, are found, and 
on the west side of the Kara-su boulders of native 
iron are met with, some of them three feet long, 
and a foot and a-half thick. Below the mountains, 
soft white chalk, with flints, composes the cliffs and 
banks of the Euphrates. The bitumen and naphtha 
fountains at Hit have been already noticed. In the 
great central plain the soil is pebbly ; to this succeeds 
a clayey soil, covered with mould or sand ; farther 
down are the Lemlun marshes, consisting of a soft 
alluvial mud, with many fresh-water shells. Below 
Bassorah, the soil is alternate mud and sand ; and as 
we approach the Gulf, it is entirely of marine origin, 
and contains sea-shells. In some parts of this 
vicinity, the surface is covered with salt, which lies 
like snow upon the ground, sometimes to the depth 
of an inch. 

In the elevated plains at the sources of the Kara- 
su and the Murad-chai, there ase no timber trees ; 
but farther to the south-west, in the recesses, and on 
the declivities of the mountains, there are extensive 
forests of oaks, groves of pines, firs, walnuts and 
mulberries. Many of the valleys resemble gardens 
in the luxuriant beauty of their vegetation. The 
vine, fig, almond, and olive ; the apple, pear, apricot, 
and plum, yield abundant fruit ; and wheat is culti- 
vated with success. The plane tree attains an enormous 
size. In spring, the ground is gay with the numerous 
liliaceous and other bulbous plants, and with or- 
chidese. Wormwood is very abundant on the east 
side of the river, as the camomile and camel-thorn 
are characteristic of the west. In the plains there 
is little wood ; the date-palm is the only important 



78 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

tree ; groves of which are very numerous in the lower 
course. Succulent plants are common ; Mesembry- 
anthemums and asters clothe the great plain of 
Shinar ; the broad pools of water are covered with 
water-lilies and ranunculuses, and are bordered with 
a luxuriant margin of reeds and rushes. Groves of 
tamarisks and acacias grow on the banks, and a spe- 
cies of poplar, with willow-like leaves, (gharah^) is 
abundant ; of this kind may have been the " willows" 
( garav, ^$) on which the captives of Israel hanged 
their harps, though osiers and other species of the 
willow are also numerous. 

The zoology of this region has not been very dis- 
tinctly observed. The lion stalks over the plain, and 
Sir Robert Ker Porter was startled by the sight of 
two or three of these lordly animals, standing on the 
very summit of the Birs Nimroud. Bears, wolves, 
foxes, lynxes, and other beasts of temperate regions, 
inhabit the mountains, and in the southern plains, 
the leopard, the hunting tiger, the hyena, and the 
jackal pursue their prey. Herds of fallow deer 
inhabit some parts of the region, and the desert 
plains are ranged by gazelles and wild asses. The 
elegant jerboa, a creature somewhat like a rabbit, but 
with the motions of the kangaroo, leaps and burrows 
in the level tracts. The disproportion between its 
fore and hind limbs is very remarkable. Various 
breeds of domestic animals, the camel, the horse, the 
ass, the ox, the sheep, and the goat are cultivated. 
Otters are found both in the Euphrates and the Tigris. 
The bustard scours the lofty table-lands at the heads 
of these rivers as did the ostrich in ancient times ; 
the latter is not now known in Asia. Pheasants, 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



'9 



partridges and quails are numerous, as are vultures, 
hawks and owls. Many of the smaller birds familiar 
to Europe are common to these regions, as the 
thrush, lark, nightingale, and most of the finches ; 
some species of kingfishers, of brilliant plumage, 
are peculiar to the river. Of the fishes and insects, 




Jerb;a, 



we know but little, except that at the mouth of the 
Euphrates, there is a very curious species of fish, 
(Lophius,) analogous to our own fishing-frog, w r hich 
is able to leave the water, and craw T l about for many 
hours upon the land ; this it is enabled to do by the 
length of the bones of its pectoral and ventral fins, 
and by the peculiar structure of its gills, which can 



80 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

long retain the moisture necessary for respiration. 
Reptiles of many repulsive forms and venomous 
natures are particularly abundant in the heaps of 
ruins that strew the plain of Shinar, as has been 
already noticed. 

Here we bring to a close our account of this 
renowned river, and the region through which it 
flows. We have sketched the picture of its ancient, 
and that of its modern condition. Such it was once ; 
such it is now ; and we cannot conclude with more 
forcible words than those in which a valuable writer 
thus sums up the contrast between the scene which 
its rolling tide once witnessed, and that which it 
witnesses now. 

" From palaces converted into broken hills ; from 
streets to long lines of heaps ; from the throne of 
the world to sitting in the dust ; from the hum of 
mighty Babylon to the death-like silence that rests 
upon the grave to which it is brought down ; from 
the great store-house of the world, where treasures 
were gathered from every quarter, and the prison- 
house of the captive Jews, where, not loosed to return 
homewards, they served in a hard bondage, to Baby- 
lon the spoil of many nations, itself taken from 
thence and nothing left ; from a vast metropolis, the 
palace of palaces, and the glory of kingdoms, whither 
multitudes ever flowed, to a dreaded and shunned 
spot, not inhabited nor dwelt in from generation to 
generation, where even the Arabian, though the son 
of the desert, pitches not his tent, and where the 
shepherds make not their folds ; — from the treasures 
of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, to the 
taking away of brick, and to an uncovered naked- 



THE CONTRAST. 81 

ness ; from making the earth to tremble, and shaking 
kingdoms, to being cast out of the grave like an 
abominable branch ; from the many nations, and 
great kings from the coasts of the earth, that have so 
often come up against Babylon, to the workmen that 
still cast her up as heaps, and add to the number of 
pools in her ruins ; from the immense artificial lake, 
many miles in circumference, by means of which the 
annual rising of the Euphrates was regulated and 
restrained, to these pools of water, a few yards round, 
dug by the workmen, and filled by the river ; from 
the first and greatest of temples, to a burnt moun- 
tain desolate for ever ; from the golden image, forty 
feet in height, which stood on the top of the temple 
of Belus, to all the graven images of her gods, that 
are broken unto the ground, and mingled with the 
dust ; from the splendid and luxurious festivals of 
Babylonian monarchs, the noise of the vials, the 
pomp of Belshazzar's feast, and the godless revelry 
of a thousand lords, drinking out of the golden vessels 
that had been taken from Zion, to the cry of wild 
beasts, the creeping of doleful creatures, of which 
their desolate houses and pleasant palaces are full, 
the nestling of owls in cavities, the dancing of wild 
goats on the ruinous mound, as on a rock, and the 
dwelling-place of dragons, and of venomous reptiles ; 
from arch upon arch, and terrace upon terrace, till 
the hanging gardens of Babylon rose like a moun- 
tain, down to the stones of the pit, now disclosed to 
view ; from the palaces of princes, who sat on the 
mount of the congregation, and thought in the pride 
of their heart to exalt themselves above the stars of 
God, to heaps cut down to the ground, perforated as 



±L 



82 THE RIVER EUPHRATES. 

the raiment of those that are slain, and as a carcase 
trodden under feet ; from the broad walls of Babylon, 
in all their height, as Cyrus camped against them 
round about, seeking in vain a single point where 
congregated nations could scale the walls or force an 
opening, to the untraceable spot on which they stood, 
w T here there is nothing left to turn aside, or impede 
in their course, the worms that cover it ; and, finally, 
from Babylon the great, the wonder of the world, to 
fallen Babylon, the astonishment of all who go by it ; 
in extremes like these, whatever changes they in- 
volve, and by whatever instrumentality they may 
have been wrought out, there is not to this hour, 
in this most marvellous history of Babylon, a single 
fact that may not most appropriately be ranked 
under a prediction, and that does not tally entirely 
with its express and precise fulfilment ; while at the 
same time they all united show, as may now be seen, 
reading the judgments to the very letter, and looking 
to the facts as they are, the destruction which has 
come from the Almighty upon Babylon."* 

* Keith's Evidence of Prophecy, 359 (35th Edition). 






II. 

THE RIVER HIDDEKEL. 



Physical History. — Site of Paradise — Pison — Gihon — Tigris — To- 
pography — Nineveh — Assyria. 

The Mission of Jonah. — The City — The Painted Walls— The 
Throng at the Gate — The Woe — Royal Penitence — The Proclama- 
tion — The Petulant Prophet — Evening — Morning — The Fast — The 
Sheltering Gourd — The Divine Reproof — Corruption of the Heart— 
The Lord's Mercy. 

Subsequent History. — Arbaces — Shalmaneser — Sennacherib — Esar- 
haddon — Nahum's Prophecy — The Fall of Nineveh — Recent Dis- 
coveries — Ruins — Sculptures — Other Relics — Truth of Prophecy. 

The Lower River. — Topography — Seleucia — Ctesiphon — Al Modain 
— Bagdad. 

Daniel's Vision. — The Glory of the Lord — Its Effect upon Daniel — 
The Second Coming of Christ. 

GENESIS II. 

The site of the terrestrial Paradise, the garden of 
delights, which the beneficence of Jehovah planted 
for his creature's residence, while innocent, has been 
defined by the inspired historian, by its connexion 
with four rivers. Yet, notwithstanding the particu- 
larity with which three of these are described, great 
uncertainty involves the question as to where it was 
actually placed. This obscurity arises from the 
difficulty of finding any two rivers answering to the 
Pison and the Gihon, in so close proximity to the 



84 THE RIVER HIDDEKEL. 

Euphrates and the Hiddekel, (or Tigris,) as shall meet 
the requirements of the sacred text. It may indeed 
be that the flood has so altered the surface of the 
land that the two smaller rivers no longer exist, with- 
out destroying the channels of the Tigris and the 
Euphrates ; yet the impression of one who reads the 
Book of Genesis, must certainly be that the sacred 
historian intended to identify the scene by geogra- 
phical features, which existed at the time that he 
wrote. Somewhere upon the courses of the Euphrates 
and Tigris, we may safely assume that the garden 
was placed, but whether near the sources, or near the 
termination of these rivers, the opinions of the 
learned are conflicting. 

Some have supposed, with Calvin, Bochart, and 
others, that we must seek the site at the confluence 
of these great rivers, w T here now the town of Korna 
is situated. The united channel, now called the 
Shat el Arab, flowed, on this hypothesis, through the 
garden, and then entered the Persian Gulf by two 
mouths. Thus the river has been compared to a 
highway crossing a forest, which may be said to 
divide itself into four ways, two on one side, and two 
on the other side of the forest. The western of the 
discharging channels is supposed to have been the 
" Pison ;" and the " Land of Havilah," which it 
bordered, to be represented by the eastern part of 
Arabia, at the head of the Gulf. Strabo mentions 
a people, named XauXoralbi, (Chaalotaioi,) in this 
vicinity, whose name resembles the word Havilah, or 
Chavilah ; and the productions mentioned, gold, the 
onyx, and " bdellium," are all characteristic of this 
region, whether we consider the latter substance 



SITE OF PARADISE. 85 

to be a gum-resin, or, as seems more probable, 
pearls. 

The Gihon would be the distinctive appellation of 
the eastern channel, by which the united waters of 
the Euphrates and the Tigris entered the Persian 
Gulf. It is true, no remembrance of this or the 
preceding name is retained in the neighbourhood ; 
but the country of which the Shat el Arab forms the 
w r estern boundary, is still called Khusistan, or the 
land of Khus, agreeing with the Cush (.translated 
" Ethiopia " in our version) of the Scripture. 

But another hypothesis, and perhaps the most 
generally received, considers that the " four heads " 
indicate the sources of four rivers ; though we see not 
how, in that case, they could be described as one river 
parted and becoming four heads. In confirmation 
of this supposition, which would place the lovely spot 
among the mountains of Armenia, it may be said 
that the Euphrates and the Tigris have their sources 
not far from each other, and in a region where rise 
two other rivers of note, the Phasis and the Araxes 
of the Greek writers. Of these, the Phasis is sup- 
posed to represent the Pison, and Colchis is the land 
of Havilah ; the Araxes seems to have a better claim 
to identity with the Gihon, inasmuch as these names, 
Araxes in the Greek, and Gihon in the Hebrew, 
denote an arrowy rapidity, which is said to charac- 
terise this stream. The Araxes, moreover, is still 
called by the Persians the Jihon. The term Cush 
might be found in the name of the Cosssei, who 
inhabited the region watered by this river. To this 
theory it may be objected that there are many more 
than four streams which water this elevated country ; 



86 THE RIVER HIDDEKEL. 

and that there seems no reason, except the slight 
similarity of sound, for identifying the Phasis with 
the Pison, when larger rivers are passed by, such as 
the ancient Cyrus, the modern Kur. 

There is scarcely any doubt, however, about the 
identity of the Hiddekel, and none at all about that 
of the Euphrates. The latter is simply mentioned, as 
needing no description, being sufficiently familiar to 
the Hebrew people ; and the name, Phrat, is the 
same by which it has been known in all ages to the 
present day. The Hiddekel is described as going 
eastward to Assyria {marginal reading) ; and the 
name, deprived of the aspirate, is essentially the same 
as that by which it is still locally known, Digl, Dijel, 
or Dijlah ; of which the word Tigris is merely a 
Greek modification. It is said to signify a dart, or 
swiftness ; and is a characteristic epithet of this rapid 
river. Pliny indeed pretends to draw a distinction, 
by saying that the name of Tigris is applied to the 
river only where it flows rapidly, and that where its 
course is slow it is named Diglito ; but Josephus 
affirms that the whole river is called Diglath. 

The whole course of the Tigris, from its most 
remote source to the point where its waters mingle 
with those of the Persian Gulf, extends through a 
winding line of 1,250 miles ; asit joins the Euphrates, 
however, at Korna, as before intimated, its proper 
length is about 100 miles less than this. The .upper 
parts of the river, and the various moamtain streams 
which combine to form its arrowy course, are not yet 
well investigated ; but the principal of them rises on 
the southern side of the mountain range, at the foot 
of which on the opposite side rolls the Euphrates, 



TOPOGRAPHY. 



87 



already a majestic river ; and not far from the point 
where it pours itself through a narrow gorge in the 
mountain chain, which there crosses its line. For 
25 miles the Tigris flows to the north-east, maintain- 
ing an elevation of nearly 5,000 feet above the level 
of the Mediterranean ; then turning to the south- 




The Tigris at Mosul. 



east for about 60 miles, reaches the Turkish town of 
Diar-bekr, situated in a fertile plain, cultivated and 
occupied with gardens. It contains about 30,000 
inhabitants, though its prosperity and population 
have greatly decayed. It is believed to occupy the 
site of the ancient town of Constantia. The river at 
this place is about 250 yards wide during the spring 
floods ; but is not navigable, except for rafts of 
timber. Hence it flows on at a much lower level, 



88 THE RIVER HIDDEKEL. 

first to the east, and then again to the south-east, 
receiving some important tributaries, for about 200 
miles, to the point where now stands the town of 
Mosul, and where formerly stood the august and 
mighty city of Nineveh. 

It has been well observed that Nineveh was in 
ruins almost before profane history commenced. Its 
origin is carried up to a remote antiquity; for it 
seems to have been founded by Nimrod, the " mighty 
hunter," after he had built Babel. If we adopt the 
marginal rendering of a passage in the Book of Genesis, 
we find that, from some cause or other, Nimrod, 
having laid the beginning of his kingdom at Babel 
in the land of Shinar, and founded other cities there, 
went forth out of that land into Assyria, and builded 
Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and 
Eesen, a great city, between Nineveh and Calah. 

Thus rose simultaneously on the banks of the 
Tigris and Euphrates, in close proximity to each 
other, two cities, each of which was destined to attain 
surpassing power, extent, magnificence and grandeur ; 
to be in turn the metropolis of a mighty empire ; to 
pass through a course of pride, idolatry, luxury, 
cruelty and sensuality ; to become a signal oppressor 
of God's sinning people, and to fall "under the pre- 
dicted vengeance of Jehovah into utter and awful 
ruin. 

About twenty-two centuries before Christ, a little 
more than a hundred and twenty years after the 
overwhelming deluge, the great Assyrian monarchy- 
was thus begun, in the plains of Mesopotamia. For 
many hundred years we have no further knowledge 
of its history, unless Chedorlaomer, the king of Elam, 



NINEVEH. 89 

or either of his allies, who made war upon the kings 
of Sodom and Gomorrah, and w T ere pursued and 
defeated by Abram, may have reigned over it ; or 
Chushan-rishathaim, that king of Mesopotamia into 
whose hands, in the days of the judges, Jehovah deli- 
vered his people Israel for their disobedience, and 
who was at length conquered by Othniel, the valiant 
nephew of Caleb. 

The empire appears to have been greatly extended, 
and its metropolis enlarged and beautified, by Ninus, 
and by his successor, the heroic Queen Semiramis ; 
v but the eras and the actions of these sovereigns, as 
recorded by the Greek writers of an age long sub- 
sequent, are involved in obscurity and fable, from 
w T hich nothing can extricate them but the original 
records themselves, sculptured on Assyrian palace- 
walls, and now in process of being recovered and 
read, after having been buried for three thousand 
years. 



JONAH m. IV. 

After the notice of its origin in the Book of 
Genesis, Nineveh is first brought before us in the 
Scriptures in the interesting mission of Jonah the 
prophet, about 860 b.c. The wickedness of the 
mighty city had gone up to God, who gave to his 
servant the perilous commission to go thither and 
announce its destruction. The failure of the pro- 
phet's faith, his disobedience, his endeavour to flee 
from the presence of the Lord, his voyage towards 
Tarshish, the dreadful tempest that arose, his being 



90 THE RIVER HIDDEKEL. 

cast into the sea, his entombment in the belly of the 
great fish, his miraculous preservation there, his 
repentance and confession, and his deliverance and 
restoration to dry land, — these are incidents replete 
with instruction and interest, but which we may 
dismiss with a mere enumeration. 

Jehovah, who is ever gracious, and who chastens 
only for the profit of his people, having brought his 
erring servant back to the spirit of obedience, renews 
his commission : " Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great 
city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid 
thee." He no longer refuses to take up the cross of 
a service so unwelcome to flesh, but at once sets out 
on his errand, not knowing but that his faithfulness 
may bring upon him the vengeance of the wicked 
city ; he goes without demur to " pay his vow t s ;" and 
we will follow him thither, and witness the delivery 
of the solemn message. 

Clad in the rough garment of coarse camel's hair, 
which the prophets of Israel were wont to wear, 
pouring contempt on the pride and luxury around 
them ; and supporting himself on his weary journey 
by an oaken staff; with a scrip of parched corn and a 
few dates suspended in his leathern girdle, he at 
length arrives on the banks of the rushing Hiddekel. 
For miles and miles before the long walls and mul- 
titude of towers that environed the vast city had 
appeared, stretching in a wide line along the distant 
horizon, the confused hum of many sounds, that 
continually grew louder and more distinct, the crowds 
of travellers, peasants and slaves, the long lines of 
wagons and weary beasts, oxen, camels and asses 
bearing merchandise, the gaily-caparisoned prancing 



THE PAINTED WALLS. 91 

horses, the cracking of whips, and the rattling of 
w T heels of the jumping chariots, all jostling one 
another as they passed to and fro over the many high 
roads that like a huge network intersect the broad 
plain, with a hundred other signs, have given sure 
token of approach to a great metropolis. 

Now the lofty battlements rise upon the eye, 
stretching away on either hand without interruption, 
until they fade into the line where the distant horizon 
melts into the hazy sky ; nor do they then cease, but 
run on far, far beyond the range of sight. Twenty 
miles in length the massive walls extend, and ten in 
breadth ; thus being sixty miles in circumference, — 
"an exceeding great city of three days' journey," — 
and covering an area of 200 square miles, along the 
east bank of the river, besides an extensive and 
populous suburb on the opposite bank, and the long 
ranges of human habitations that stretch away into 
the plain from every gate. The wall is an immense 
structure, a hundred and fifty feet in height, and fifty 
in thickness, so broad that three chariots can be 
driven along it abreast. It is constructed of bricks 
dried in the sun ; but for one-third of the height, 
these are incased with blocks of polished stone. On 
the summit, at regular distances, are built towers, 
to the number of 1,500, each 200 feet high ; and 
besides these, watch-towers here and there, of a 
pyramidal form, rise to a still loftier elevation, com- 
manding a wide horizon. 

The Israelitish seer gazes in mute astonishment at 
the wondrous scene before him ; for the whole surface 
of the wall, except the polished plinth of stone, is 
covered with gigantic figures, painted in vivid colours 



92 



THE RIVER HIDDEEEL. 



upon the smooth plaster. There are "men por- 
trayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans 
portrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon 
their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, 
all of them princes to look to."* There are the 
exploits of the ancient Assyrian kings depicted in 
life-like vigour ; there the ancient hunter himself 
fights with the rampant lion, and buries the steel in 
his savage heart. There too he leads his mailed and 




Lion Hunting. 



helmeted warriors against his foes, or pursues them 
with clouds of arrows from his sumptuous chariot. 
There his armies are gathered before the battle- 
ments of some hostile city, against which they plant 
their scaling ladders, while they deal heavy blows 
upon the walls, or pick out the massive stones with 
their military engines. There scenes meet the eye, 
where the long line of bound and insulted captives 
led away, the torture and massacre, prisoners be- 
headed, impaled, or flayed, heaps of heads and ampu- 
tated hands, tell how cruel is the victory. 

The admiration of the Hebrew stranger gives place 



* Ezek. xxiii. 14, 15. 



THE THRONG AT THE GATE. 93 

to sorrow as he gazes upon the vivid pictures ; where 
scene after scene only brings into prominence some 
of the rampant evils of man's unregenerate heart ; 
pride, luxury, covetousness, violence and cruelty ; 
and all paraded as so many excellences, for the glori- 
fication of man. But he sees other things than 
these ; objects that no true Israelite can look upon 
without horror and indignation : — he sees the sense- 
less idols, the likeness of beast, and bird, and creeping 
thing, and other hideous forms, set on high, receiving 
the homage of incense-bearing priests and royal wor- 
shippers. He will look no more ; but with stimulated 
zeal and freshened courage, he girds himself to his 
arduous work. 

But what shall the feeble voice of a poor unknown 
stranger do here ? Look at yonder broad gateway, 
where the lofty portals expand half-way up the wall, 
and where the colossal winged lions of yellow marble 
shine in the beams of the morning sun with a golden 
glow. See how the living tide of men comes pouring 
out, each intent on his own purpose, with no leisure 
to think of his neighbour ! The begrimed artisan 
hurries along beside the well-dressed merchant, and 
jostles the pompous scribe, who gathers his garment 
around him, as if polluted. The light-hearted maiden, 
with her water-pitcher on her head, erect as an 
obelisk, trips past the sunken-eyed- widow, wasted 
with sickness and poverty, who with a wailing babe 
at her back creeps out to seek a pittance in the cor- 
ners of the fields. Nobles in scarlet and gold, priests 
in their long embroidered robes, ride out to enjoy 
the country air. Here a hunting party gallops forth, 
armed with bow and spear, followed by eager dogs, 



94 



THE RIVER HIDDEKEL. 



well trained to find the panther in his lair, or to 
chase the antelope ; their loud and merry laughter 
promises no sympathy with a sentence of woe. Here 
a proud and steel-clad warrior dashes by in his carved 
and inlaid chariot, the scales of his polished mail 
flinging sparkles of light upon the surrounding 
throng ; the gorgeous caparisons of his high-mettled 
steeds, that prance, and arch their necks, and champ 
their bits, attract the admiration of the crowd, whom 




Assyrian Horses. 



he drives to either side, as he cleaves his swift course 
through them ; — he plays carelessly with his ruby- 
hilted dagger, but bestows not a glance on the mes- 
senger of Jehovah. 

How shall the voice of the prophet be heard amidst 
this tumultuous din ? The rattling of the chariot 



THE WOE. 95 

wheels over the brick-pavement, the neighing of the 
horses, the clashing of arms, and the blowing of horns 
and trumpets ; the noises of dogs and other domestic 
animals ; the cries of those w T ho with hoarse lungs 
vaunt the excellences of their varied wares ; the 
hum of thousands of human voices ; the many 
sounds that come from shops and offices, the clang 
of the armourer's forge, the noise of the smith's 
anvil, of the carpenter's hammer and saw, — unite 
into a confused medley of noises, almost deaf- 
ening. 

To one who looked only at human probabilities, 
nothing could be more discouraging than the attempt 
to deliver such a message in such a place ; but Jonah 
remembers who hath sent him thither, and that his 
business is not with consequences, but with the will 
of Jehovah. Strengthened, therefore, the prophet 
enters into the guilty city, and lifts up his voice like 
a trumpet. He commences his solemn message with 
these startling words : "Yet forty days, and Nineveh 
shall be overthrown !" A crowd gathers around him, 
but none molest him, for a preternatural awe falls 
upon them as they listen to his denunciations of their 
speedy doom. Through their crowded and glittering 
streets he wends his way, continually pouring forth 
his words of terror, and denouncing the woe of the 
bloody city. He " drops the burden " of Jehovah 
upon their aggravated wickedness, bringing forth 
their crimes in all their hideous nakedness into the 
light, and pronouncing the righteous judgment of 
God, and his wrath revealed from heaven against 
them. The pride and haughtiness that said, "I am, 
and there is none beside me " — the carelessness that 



96 THE RIVER HIDDEKEL. 

regarded not the solemn retribution to come — the 
multiform idolatry that has robbed Jehovah of 
His rightful claim to homage and obedience — the 
deceitfulness and lying, the cheating and robbery 
that have filled the city, and the tyranny and 
oppression, the cruelty and bloodshed that have 
ground in pieces the nations, and filled the earth 
with mourning without pity or remorse — the prophet 
recounts in unsparing words ; while every heart 
responds, and none dares deny that the accusations 
are true. In vain they listen for some offers of 
mercy ; nothing but judgment falls on their ears ; 
for the message which the seer has received to de- 
liver, is only a message of woe. . 

Word is brought to the King of Assyria, as he 
reclines at ease in his luxurious banquet hall, that 
the days of his proud city are numbered, and that 
her doom is at hand. Conviction strikes through his 
heart, for conscience, long silenced, now loudly speaks, 
and tells him that it is a righteous doom. Traditions 
and reports he has from time to time heard of the 
power and truth of Jehovah, and of his irresistible 
vengeance ; but he has heard, too, that Israel's God 
is merciful, and though no call to repentance nor 
offer of pardon is mingled with the prophetic burden, 
yet the respite of forty days seems to imply that the 
way is not closed against penitence, and that the 
doom is not yet irreversible. Without a moment's 
delay, therefore, he arises from his throne, puts off 
his sumptuous garments of state, and covers himself 
with sackcloth ; and at the same time sends his 
servants into every part of the city to proclaim a 
solemn fast, while he retires into the recess of his 



THE PROCLAMATION. 97 

chamber, to humble himself in dust and ashes, and 
to pray for mercy. 

The sun at length declines ; and Jonah prepares to 
seek the rest of night for his weary feet, which have 
borne him all the day through the interminable 
streets, though but a small part of the city has been 
traversed. But before he emerges from the gate, 
still pouring his heart-withering woe, he is met by 
the royal heralds, who thus proclaim the decree of 
the king and his nobles : "• Let neither man nor 
beast, herd, nor flock, taste anything ; let them not 
feed, nor drink water ; but let man and beast be 
covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God. 
Yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and 
from the violence that is in their hands. Who can 
tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from 
his fierce anger, that we perish not V 

In this is manifested the faith that honours God. 
Deep humiliation, confession of guilt, fervent prayer, 
repentance, and turning away from all known evil, 
are appointed ways in which those against whom the 
denunciations of God's word lie may flee from the 
wrath to come. But if there was present pardon, 
and an averting of denounced judgment for guilty 
Nineveh, on their imperfect and probably partial and 
transient penitence, how much more may poor re- 
pentant sinners now come and cast themselves upon 
the mercy of God, since free forgiveness is now 
offered, and the blood of Christ has been shed for 
sin ? And will not the faith and conduct of the 
Ninevites, who repented at the preaching of Jonah, 
unsupported by any miraculous signs, rise up in the 
judgment to condemn the apathy and unbelief of the 

5 



98 THE RIVER HIDDEKEL. 

people of this country, unto whom the gospel has 
come — who have often heard of the love of God in 
Christ, but have never been obedient to the message 
of his grace ? 

But how is the prophet affected by what he hears ? 
Does he not hail with joy the success of his preaching, 
and does not his gladness find vent in grateful praise 
to Jehovah, and kindly encouragement to the mourn- 
ing citizens ? Alas ! no ! he retires from the city 
moody and disappointed ; and when the Holy Spirit 
tells him that the repentance of Nineveh has come 
up before Him, and that mercy shall rejoice against 
judgment, the servant of God captiously murmurs at 
the grace, and insinuates that it is a wrong to him- 
self. He even ventures to request, in the petulance 
of his anger, that God will take his life from him, 
affirming that he had rather die than live any longer. 
Pride rises up in his heart, and suggests, that now 
his credit as a prophet will be gone, since his pre- 
dictions are not fulfilled — pharisaic vindictiveness, 
that would rather see judgment executed against sin, 
than mercy exerted in pardon — national antipathy, 
that had expected to be gratified in the overthrow of 
a great Gentile empire, the mightiest in the earth. 
Jonah has forgotten how mercifully the Lord has 
forgiven him y how He delivered him " from the 
belly of hell," whither his rebellion and folly had 
brought him. Ah ! would that Christians had less 
of the peevish intolerant spirit of Jonah, and more of 
the loving, forbearing, forgiving spirit of Jesus ! w ; 

Evening is gradually drawing her veil over the 
broad plain of Assyria, as the still rebellious prophet 
reclines his tired frame at the foot of a palm, a mile 



Ul 



EVENING. 99 

or two out of the city. More than one Ninevite has 
offered him hospitality, desirous to show respect to 
the messenger of Jehovah, and to profit by his in- 
structions how to avert the threatened wrath : but 
the proffered courtesy has been rejected in sullen 
anger. He will have no fellowship with the guilty 
race, nor will he accept their friendship. The heaven 
shall be his canopy, and the earth his pillow. Yet 
truly to sleep beneath such a sky, reclined upon such 
a carpet, is no great self-denial. 

The sun has gone down behind the long wall of 
the city, which just hides the horizon from view, but 
does not conceal the flush of ruddy light that bathes 
the western sky, nor the fantastic piles and little 
peaks of cloud, where the orb has disappeared, the 
points and sides of which display an edging of light 
that glows like molten gold. Streaks of crimson 
light radiate from the point of sun-setting, and 
stretching over the whole zenith in widening bands, 
rest upon the snowy peaks of Ararat, far in the 
north-east, flushing them with the hue of the rose. 
The parching heat has gone down with the sun, and 
a pleasant breeze, most delightfully cool, bears the 
fragrance of a thousand flowers. These, of every hue, 
enamelling the grass in gorgeous abundance, are now, 
indeed, beginning to fade from the view in the ad- 
vancing shadow, but give out their perfume in more 
copious gushes, under the stimulus of the falling 
dew. The peasants have unyoked their cattle, and 
are trudging to their cottages through the fields ; 
and lowing kine and bleating flocks are slowly 
returning from the pastures, with distended udders. 
Women are seen around the huts, crouching beneath 



100 THE RIVER HIDDEKEL. 

the kine to milk them as they arrive ; others, in 
laughing groups, are going to the wells or to the 
river, bearing pitchers on their erect heads. Youths 
bring home baskets of fruit from the orchards, or 
huge bundles of grass and rushes which they have 
cut by the river's side, their feet and legs wet with the 
heavy dew, and loaded with the yellow pollen of the 
blossoming grass. Parties of the citizens, not yet 
aware of the proclamation, are enjoying the cool of 
the day, and many a traveller hurries along towards 
the city, anxious lest the gates should be shut before 
he can arrive. The youths and maidens are dancing 
together in many a happy group, to the music of their 
own voices, or of a lyre strung by coarse, but not 
unskilful hands. Now and then the tinkling of the 
camel's bell betokens a party of wandering Arabs, 
whose long spears, tipped with tufts of ostrich-plumes, 
wave and flutter against the sky, above their heads. 
The long howl of the jackal comes from the desert, 
and is answered by the dogs prowling beneath the 
city-walls for the carrion which daily accumulates 
there. At length, all the sights are lost in the purple 
night, save the stars that glitter and burn above ; and 
all sounds have died away, except the rich notes of 
the bulbul, that are poured forth in gushes of melody 
from the orchards around. Lovely and soothing is 
the scene! but no charms of nature can calm the 
human spirit when a prey to evil passions. Turbulent 
and peevish anger, discontent with God, with him- 
self, and with all around, are raging in Jonah, almost 
uncontrolled, until at length he sinks into a feverish 
and unrefreshing slumber. His gracious Lord, how- 
ever, " the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever," 



THE FAST. 101 

guards His failing servant with watchful love ; for 
" He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor 
sleep !" 

Morning breaks, and reveals the bold and broken 
ranges of Armenia's mountains, whose pointed sum- 
mits stand out in dark relief against the vermilion 
east, and throw long lines of shadow across the sky. 
Up springs the glowing sun, and pours his scorching 
rays across the plain, flushing the face of the awakened 
prophet, as if the door of a furnace had been sud- 
denly opened. The songs of thousands of happy birds 
ascend up to heaven ; their tribute of praise to Him 
who watcheth with tender care the sparrow's fall, and 
heareth the young ravens which cry unto Him. The 
flowers, refreshed with dew, open their delicate 
blossoms, and the wide landscape rejoices in the 
beams of the new-born day. 

The city is still quiet, but it is not the quietness 
of repose ; for in this sultry clime the population too 
well appreciate the refreshing coolness of early morn- 
ing to be in bed after day has broken ; and long before 
the sun had peeped over the mountains, the gates at 
any other time* would have been thrown open, and 
swarms of busy people would have been crowding to 
and fro. But now scarcely a human form is visible, 
and a silence, deep and solemn, reigns, where usually 
the hum of active life is heard, except that mournful 
lowings of cattle, heard at intervals through the night, 
still come from the teeming city, where they have 
been joining their distressed cries to the prayers of 
the penitent people, and thus have, as it were, un- 
consciously helped to keep the fast and vigil. 

Still sullen and displeased, the Hebrew prophet no 



102 THE RIVER HIDDEKEL. 

more seeks the city, but prepares himself a rude hut 
or booth, of such materials as he can collect on the 
spot. A few sticks set in the ground, and others 
placed across them, to afford a frail support for the 
brittle stems of dried herbage, or the coarse grass 
that he can pull up with his hands, afford a slight 
protection from the rays of the sun, which every 
moment increases in torrid heat. Here he seats 
himself, determined to wait and see — notwithstanding 
the intimation he has received, that God has accepted 
its timely repentance — what will become of the city. 
Such moroseness is as ill-judged as it is contrary to 
mercy and love ; for surely no more certain way 
could be devised to prejudice the idolatrous heathen 
against the character and worship of the God whom 
the prophet represented. 

But the same grace which forbears with the guilty 
Nineveh, forbears also with the rebellious Jonah. 
The Lord will reprove him, but in so gentle and 
convincing a manner, as shall instruct and humble, 
without crushing his spirit. For this purpose, He 
first miraculously causes to spring up behind the 
frail booth a luxuriant " gourd," or 'rather a plant 
known to modern science as the castor-oil tree, of 
herbaceous structure, but with the dimensions of a 
tree. Its abundant, broad, and elegantly divided 
leaves of a pleasant greenness, greatly refresh the 
languid prophet, not only by affording a better 
shadow from the burning sun than his poor booth 
could afford him, but by the coolness which in hot 
climates is always found beneath the foliage of trees, 
especially those with large leaves ; produced by the 
copious evaporation from their extended surfaces. 



THE SHELTERING GOURD. 



103 



The plant, springing up in its rich luxuriance, casts 
its shadow over Jonah's head, to his great comfort 
and refreshment. Thus he who is offended and 
angry at the preservation of a populous city from 




Jonah's Gourd. 



destruction, is made " exceeding glad " of the slight 
personal relief afforded by a sheltering shrub ! 

But scarcely is his excessive joy indulged, when it 
gives place to equally disproportionate grief. He who 
spread the grateful shade over his servant's head, 
prepares a worm at the root, so that the tall and 
comely plant withers as rapidly as it rose. Its thick 
and succulent stem droops and falls, and the luxu- 
riant foliage is all shrivelled and dry ; while at the 
same time a vehement east wind, hot and parching, 
increases the intense heat of the sun, that beats down 
in unmitigated fury : the air is like that of an oven, 
and the poor fainting prophet, having lost his friendly 



104 THE RIVER HIDDEKEL. 

tree, gives himself up to despair, and again wishes 
that he may die ! 

" And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be 
angry for the gourd ? And he said, I do well to be 
angry, even unto death. Then said the Lord, Thou 
hast had pity on the gourd, for the which* thou hast 
not laboured, neither madest it grow ; which came 
up in a night, and perished in a night , and should 
not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are 
more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot 
discern between their right hand and their left hand ; 
and also much cattle ?" 

An humbling example is this of the depravity yet 
remaining in the heart of a renewed man, and ever 
ready to break out into some open sin, if watchful- 
ness and faith be intermitted. Are we astonished 
that a messenger of God should repine at his own 
success — should desire the destruction rather than 
the salvation of sinners — should proudly justify his 
former disobedience, for which he had been already 
severely chastised, and his present anger, even before 
God himself, and should impatiently pray for death 
when he had been but just delivered from it in 
answer to prayer? Let the saint look into the depths 
of his own heart, and he will find his astonishment 
at Jonah's inconsistency much diminished. The 
remains of inbred corruption are sufficient in every 
child of God to betray him into that which will 
bring dishonour on the name of his Lord, and dark- 
ness and bitterness into his own soul, but for the 
constant exercise of faith in the atoning Blood, and 
the untiring care of his heavenly Advocate before the 
Throne. Self, the rival of Christ in the heart, is in 



THE MERCY OF GOD. 105 

one form or other the root of every sin. Self-seeking, 
self-pleasing, self-love, self-indulgence, self-glory, 
hide Christ from the soul, obscure the spiritual judg- 
ment, deaden the conscience, and facilitate the com- 
mission of sins, at which the man of God, when 
walking in communion with his heavenly Father, 
would have shuddered. Nor is any occasion so small 
but that it may be successfully used by Satan as a 
vehicle of temptation. Jonah selfishly valued the 
refreshment of his " gourd " more than the lives of 
sixscore thousand innocent babes — more than the 
pardon of half-a-million of sinners ! What need 
have we to guard against the power of impetuous 
passions, and to watch and pray, with humble self- 
distrust, against the treachery of our corrupt hearts, 
lest we mistake the dictates of a spiteful temper for a 
zeal for the Lord's glory ! True charity " rejoiceth 
not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth," even 
when found in an adversary ; and so far from 
repining at marks of Divine favor being bestowed on 
those who perhaps differ much from ourselves, will 
be able to recognise the sovereignty of God, and 
give him thanks for his mercy. 

It is well for us, that in our constant failure we 
have to do with " a merciful and gracious God, slow 
to anger, and of great kindness," who does not " deal 
with us after our sins, nor reward us according to 
our iniquities." The forbearance and tenderness 
manifested in Jehovah's expostulations with his 
fretful servant, show us his compassionate character, 
and express a love that cannot wear out. The Lord 
deals in various modes with his people to conform 
them to Himself, and humble their hearts ; sometimes 

5* 






106 THE RIVER HIDDEKEL. 

inflicting fearful chastisement, as when He caused 
his servant to be engulphed in the yawning fish ; at 
others, condescending to expostulate, and gently to 
reprove. ' But neither the one nor the other is the 
result of waywardness or variableness, but of infinite 
love and infinite wisdom working under different 
circumstances by different means, each, however, 
being the very best adapted to promote the desired 
end. 



EZEKIEL XXXI. NAHUM I. III. 

The repentance and reformation of the people of 
Nineveh under the preaching of Jonah, prolonged 
the existence of the great Assyrian empire for about 
seventy years. Near the middle of this period, Pul, 
the first of its monarchs whose name is recorded in 
Scripture, invaded the kingdom of Israel, and made 
it tributary. About the year b. c. 746, in the reign 
of the luxurious and effeminate Sardanapalus, an 
insurrection was raised by Arbaces, the governor of 
Media ; and the example of the Medes was followed 
by the Babylonians, excited by a Chaldean priest, 
named Belesys. The Persians and other allies soon 
joined the revolters, who attacked the capital on all 
sides. It maintained a siege for three years ; at the 
end of which time, the monarch, collecting his 
precious treasures into a vast funeral pyre, placed 
himself on it, surrounded by his wives and concu- 
bines, and set it on fire. All perished in the flames, 
and thus ended the long dynasty of the mighty 
monarchs of Assyria. The empire was now divided 



SUBSEQUENT HISTORY. 107 

into three kingdoms, Assyria, Babylon, and Media. 
Arbaces established a new dynasty in the Assyrian 
metropolis, though with diminished power ; he is 
commonly supposed to be the king named in 
Scripture Tiglath-pileser. He came against the 
kingdoms of Syria and Israel, and carried away into 
captivity some of the people of both nations. 

About twenty-five years after this first captivity of 
Israel, Hoshea endeavoured, by an alliance with 
Egypt, to throw off the Assyrian yoke ; on which 
Shalmaneser, the successor of Tiglath-pileser, brought 
his armies, and invested Samaria, which fell into his 
hands after having sustained the tedious horrors of a 
siege for three years. The Assyrian monarch, ac- 
cording to a policy which was frequently adopted in 
ancient times, determined to remove the whole popu- 
lation of the conquered country, and to replace it by 
colonies from other parts of his dominions. He 
accordingly " carried Israel away into Assyria, and 
placed them in Halah, and in Habor by the river of 
Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes." By this we 
understand the principal persons, and the bulk of 
the common people ; but from Ezra iv. 2, we learn 
that the work was not completed until the reign of 
Esar-haddon, the grandson of this monarch. 

The campaign of Sennacherib against the kingdom 
of Judah — his haughty arrogance and blasphemies 
against Jehovah — the distress and piety of King 
Hezekiah, and the miraculous destruction of the 
invading army, by which a hundred and eighty-five 
thousand men became in one night " all dead corpses," 
have made the name of this Assyrian king prominent 
in the Sacred Scriptures. Humiliated at his defeat, 



108 THE RIVER HIDDEKEL. 

he returned to Nineveh, where he was slain by two 
of his own sons, and another son, Esar-haddon, 
reigned in his stead. 

In the confusion which followed the loss of the 
army and the murder of the monarch, the Medes and 
the Babylonians succeeded in recovering their in- 
dependence ; and the king of the latter sent a con- 
gratulatory embassy to Hezekiah. But Esar-haddon, 
having at length subdued his revolted provinces, 
found himself sufficiently strong to push his con- 
quests westward. As we have already intimated, he 
completed the removal of the Israelitish people to 
Assyria ; after which, apparently in the same year, 
he sent his generals into the neighbouring territory of 
Judah, where his father had been so wofully discom- 
fited. But he who now reigned on the throne of 
David was the wicked Manasseh, a degenerate son of 
a worthy sire, who had " seduced his people to do 
more evil than did the nations whom the Lord 
destroyed before the children of Israel ;" who had 
dealt with familiar spirits and wizards ; who had 
caused his children to pass through the fire to 
Moloch ; and who had " shed innocent blood very 
much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to 
another." No miraculous interposition was wrought 
for him ; no angel of death now smote the Assyrian 
host. Manasseh was taken " among the thorns," 
having attempted to hide himself in a thicket, and 
being brought in fetters to Esar-haddon, was by him 
carried captive to Babylon, which, it seems, was the 
seat of this monarch's residence. The captive Jewish 
king was here brought to humble himself before God, 
and to confess and bewail his enormous sins, and 



nahum's prophecy. 109 

became one of the most signal examples ol pardoning 
grace that have ever been recorded. As in the case 
of Saul of Tarsus, the Lord seems to have intended 
to show forth in Manasseh an example of " all long- 
suffering, for a pattern to them who should thereafter 
believe on Him." 

It was principally in the reign of Esar-haddon, 
that the pious Tobit lived long and prosperously at 
Nineveh ; an Israelite, who had been carried away 
with his family, from the northern part of Galilee, by 
Shalmaneser. 

It seems also to have been in the early part of 
the same reign, that the magnificent poem, entitled 
" The Burden of Nineveh," was composed by the 
inspired prophet Nahum. On its style and structure, 
Bishop Lowth makes the following observations : 
" None of the minor prophets seem to equal Nahum 
in boldness, ardour, and sublimity. His prophecy, 
to<5, forms a regular and perfect poem ; the exordium 
is not merely magnificent, it is truly majestic ; the 
preparation for the destruction of Nineveh, and the 
description of its downfall and desolation, are ex- 
pressed in the most vivid colours, and are bold and 
luminous in the highest degree."* He is called the 
El-Koshite, from the village of El Kosha in Galilee, 
according to Jerome ; but there is a village named 
Elkosh, about fifteen miles to the north of the ruins 
of Nineveh, where a very general tradition places the 
tomb of the prophet. It is a Christian village, but is 
held in reverence by both Mohammedans and Jews, 
who resort thither in great numbers, and keep the 

* Lowth's Prelect, xxi. 



110 THE RIVER HIDDEKEL. 

tomb in repair. Mr. Layard, in his most interesting 
work on Nineveh,* considers the tradition as not 
without weight. If it be entitled to confidence, 
Nahum must have delivered his burden, like Jonah, 
his predecessor, with the proud city herself before 
him. 

The prophet, in language of terrible vividness, 
denounces " Woe to the bloody city ;" he accuses 
her of being " all full of lies and robbery ;" as being 
constantly filled with prey, which, under the simili- 
tude of " an old lion, tearing in pieces his victims for 
his whelps, and strangling them for his lionesses, and 
filling his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin," 
— the tyrannical might of the Assyrian monarchy had 
gathered from the spoiled nations. He accuses her 
of abominable idolatry, under the similitude of " a 
well-favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, 
that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and 
families through her witchcrafts." Heavy thre&t- 
enings from Jehovah are uttered, who repeatedly 
declares that He is " against her :" again and again 
is it announced that the fire shall devour her, that 
her chariots shall be burned in the smoke ; that the 
sword shall devour her " young lions ;" that, though 
she should make great preparations to stand a siege, 
drawing waters, fortifying the strong-holds, and 
making strong the brick-kilns,f yet should she be 
devoured ; that her crowned captains should flee 
away like grasshoppers, and their place be no more 
known. For Jehovah will bring against her a terrible 

* " Nineveh and its Remains/' London, 1849. 
t That is, for the making of bricks, in order to form new forti- 
fications. 



FALL OF NINEVEH. 



Ill 



enemy, who for his power and violence, and un- 
sparing mercilessness, is known as " the dasher in 
pieces," who shall bring his mighty men in scarlet, 
wdth blood-red shields, as if to denote their san- 
guinary purposes ; whose chariots furnished with 
naming torches, shall rage in her streets, and justle 
one against another in the broad ways ; who shall 




Chariot of Nineveh. 



take the spoil of silver, and the spoil of gold, and the 
pleasant and glorious furniture* of which " there is no 
end." In her streets shall be heard " the noise of 
a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, 
and of the prancing horses, and of the jumping 
chariots." Then it is added, as if the tumultuous scene 
were really being enacted before the prophet's eye ; 
" the horseman lifteth up both the bright sw^ord and 
the glittering spear : and there is a multitude of slain, 
and a great number of carcases ; and there is none end 
of their corpses ; they stumble upon their corpses." 
The noble river, her pride and boast, shall help her 



112 THE RIVER HIDDEKEL. 

destruction ; for " the gates of the rivers shall be 
opened, and the palaces shall be dissolved." Jehovah 
will make an utter end ; affliction shall not rise up the 
second time. No more of her name shall be sown ; the 
Lord will cut off the graven image, and the molten 
image ; He will make Tier grave, because she is vile. 
He will even cast upon her abominable filth, and 
make her vile, and set her as a gazing stock. 

No city in the world seemed less likely to be sub- 
ject to such a doom than the great and populous 
Nineveh, the metropolis of the mighty Assyrian 
empire. Yet before a hundred years had expired, all 
was accomplished ; and not a jot nor a tittle of God's 
word against her had failed. The Medes under 
Cyaxares, and the Babylonians under Nabopolassar, 
again united their forces, and after a siege, during 
which it is said the sudden rise of the Tigris overthrew 
a part of the walls, they succeeded in taking it ; when, 
to gratify the envy of the Medes, it was utterly de- 
stroyed. In Jeremiah's time it had utterly passed 
away; for that prophet, enumerating the kingdoms of 
the earth who were doomed to drink at God's hand 
" the cup of fury," makes no mention of Assyria, or 
of Nineveh ; and Ezekiel, who prophesied at the 
same time, gives a highly poetical description of 
" the Assyrian," but holds up his awful fall as a 
warning to other nations. 

The destruction of Nineveh was absolute and 
sudden ; " affliction" did not, as in the case of 
Babylon, " rise up a second tiineP Lucian, a writer 
in the second century of the Christian era, himself 
a native of a city on the Euphrates, declares that 
Nineveh had utterly perished, that there was then no 



RECENT DISCOVERIES 113 

vestige of it remaining, and that none knew where it 
had stood. Tradition had, however, indistinctly 
preserved a remembrance of the site ; and immense 
heaps of earth, scattered along the banks of the 
Tigris, principally on the east side opposite the 
modern city of Mosul, were considered as, with some 
jprobability, indicating the place where once had 
stood the proud seat of Assyrian greatness. 

Within the last few years, discoveries, the most 
startling, and of the highest interest, have been 
made ; and these mounds have been found to contain 
remains of Assyrian art, of very high antiquity, of 
great beauty, often in a perfect state of preservation, 
by means of which our knowledge of the history of 
this ancient empire is likely to receive important 
accessions. While we write these pages, reports of 
fresh discoveries, as unexpected as interesting, are 
almost daily arriving ; the pavement of one of the 
city gates has been uncovered, deeply indented with 
the ruts of the chariot wheels ; and even the throne 
of the Assyrian kings has been found, built of carved 
ivory, with lions' feet, with the remains of a sort of 
veil or curtain around it, which appears to have 
screened the sacred person of the sovereign from a 
too familiar gaze. 

The principal mounds which appear to be identified 
with ancient Nineveh, are Kouyunjik, (including the 
so-called Tomb of Jonah,) on the east bank of the 
Tigris, opposite Mosul; Nimroud, about eighteen 
miles lower down the river, near the junction of the 
Greater Zab ; Karasules, about twelve miles north of 
Nimroud, and Khorsabad, nearly the same distance 
north of Kouyunjik. These points form the four 



114 THE RIVER HIDDEKEL. 

corners of a rhomboid, the circumference of which is 
sixty miles, the dimensions assigned to the ancient 
city. Many mounds are scattered over this area, and 
the whole face of the country is strewn with bricks, 
pottery, and other fragments of antiquity. Forty 
miles below Nimroud, on the west bank of the Tigris, 
is another vast shapeless mass of ruins, covered with 
grass, and called Kalah Sherghat. This is another 
Assyrian city, possibly the Calah mentioned in Gen. 
x. 11, as having been built by Nimrod. Other 
mounds are also scattered about the great plain 
through which the Tigris and its tributaries flow. 

The first monuments of importance were obtained 
at Khorsabad, in the year 1844, by M. Botta, the 
French Consul at Mosul. Excavating in the mound 
so called, he uncovered a chamber, surrounded by 
slabs of alabaster, on which were sculptured in relief, 
battles, sieges, processions, and other scenes ; with 
numerous inscriptions in the arrow-headed character. 
It was evident that the palace of which this was a 
part, had been subjected to the action of fire, for the 
slabs were completely calcined, and could scarcely be 
preserved sufficiently to allow the scenes and in- 
scriptions to be copied, before they mouldered into 
dust. 

In the autumn of the following year, our enter- 
prising countryman, Mr. Layard, commenced exca- 
vations at Nimroud, and in a few days discovered 
many relics, among which were a pair of gigantic 
winged bulls, but in an imperfect condition. Many 
bas-reliefs of scenes similar to those already de- 
scribed, were subsequently discovered ; many of them 
still bearing traces of paint, with which they had 



TRUTH OF PROPHECY. 115 

been either entirely or partially adorned. The expo- 
sure of the majestic countenance of a human-headed 
lion, and its extrication from the " grave of filth," in 
which it had lain for five-and-twenty centuries, are 
described by the discoverer in the most graphic 
manner ; as are also the details of many other most 
important resuscitations, into which space forbids 
our entering. Among the most interesting objects 
obtained, besides the numerous sculptured scenes of 
military, civil, and religious incidents, were helmets 
of iron and copper, many scales which once composed 
the iron coats-of-mail of the warriors, vases of great 
elegance, of alabaster and clay, and one of glass, 
crouching sphinxes, lions of basalt and of copper, 
an obelisk of black marble elaborately sculptured, 
ivory ornaments and implements of various sorts, 
and, recently, vessels of copper, which, when the 
outer coat of oxide is scraped off, appear as bright as 
if they had just left the shop of the workman. 

In all these discoveries are brought out the unerr- 
ing truth of the Word of God. The descriptions 
given of Nineveh's greatness and power, of her riches 
and luxury, her idolatry, her cruelty, are illustrated 
in the most graphic manner by these silent but un- 
impeachable witnesses. The long oblivion in which 
they have lain ; the " grave " in which they have 
been entombed, and from which they are now plucked 
to become " a gazing stock ;" the evidences they 
exhibit of a sudden overthrow ; the marks of fire 
which most of them display, no less exactly agree 
with the letter of inspired prophecy, the doom pro- 
nounced upon the beautiful, but guilty city, by the 
living God. " And He will stretch out his hand 



116 THE RIVEK HIDDEKEL. 

against the north, and destroy Assyria ; and will make 
Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness. 
And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the 
beasts of the nations ; both the cormorant and the 
bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it ; their 
voice shall sing in the windows ; desolation shall be 
in the thresholds : for He shall uncover the cedar 
work. This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly ; 
that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside 
me : how is she become a desolation, a place for 
beasts to lie down in ! Every one that passeth by 
her shall hiss, and wag his head !"* 



Below the confluence of the Greater Zab with 
the Tigris, the point which may be considered the 
southern limit of ancient Nineveh, the river runs 
through an immense plain, bounded on the south by 
the Hamrin Hills, through w^hich it forces its way, 
after having received the waters of the Lesser Zab. 
At this point, which is about eighty miles below 
Mosul, the Tigris has a breadth of 500 yards. Below 
the confluence of this river, a range of hills on the 
western bank separates the Tigris from the channel 
of the Thathar, now dry, and extends to the termina- 
tion of a long mound, known as the "Median wall." 
Here the river issues from the hills into the great 
central, or Babylonish plain, where it pursues its 
course nearly parallel to the Euphrates, and not far 
distant from it. The closest approximation of the 
two rivers, before their junction, is at the point where 

* Zeph. ii. 13-15. 



TOPOGRAPHY. 117 

the city of Bagdad is situated, which is not more 
than twelve or fourteen miles from the Euphrates. 
The Saklawiyeh* canal, which unites the two rivers 
near this point, is, indeed, forty-five miles long, but 
it pursues a somewhat tortuous course, from a point 
on the Euphrates considerably higher up than that 
where it enters the Tigris. Twenty miles below the 
termination of this canal, the Diyalah, a large river, 
pours a great body of water into the Tigris, from the 
north-east ; it is 400 yards broad, and the strong 
current is described as rushing as from a sluice. An 
ancient canal connects these two rivers, near Bagdad, 
and several others may still be traced crossing the 
plain, between the Tigris and the Euphrates ; once 
uniting their waters, and aifording facilities for com- 
mercial navigation, as well as a supply of water for 
agricultural purposes, to these fertile regions. About 
350 miles below Bagdad, the Tigris, after a very 
winding course, unites with the Euphrates to form 
the Shat el Arab, as already described. The plain 
watered by these rivers contains, except in the dry 
season, good pasturage, and is occupied by several 
wandering tribes of Bedouins, who pitch their tents 
where they please. The physical characteristics of 
the Tigris, though varying considerably in the dif- 
ferent parts of its course, agree with those which 
mark the correspondent portions of the Euphrates. 

These ancient rivers have witnessed the rise and 
fall of several generations, (if we may be allowed the 
expression,) of mighty cities. Babylon and Nineveh 
pursued their rival courses together through a long 

* This name may probably be a corruption of Seleueia (LeAsuxsia), 
of which we shall presently speak. 



118 THE KIVER HIDDEKEL. 

series of ages ; then they were involved in rain ; but 
the former survived her sister city for three hundred 
years. Then Seleucus Nicator built a magnificent 
city on the west bank of the Tigris, about forty miles 
to the north of Babylon, from whose ruins he took 
the materials of which it was erected, and the. 
inhabitants with which it was peopled. It was called 
Seleucia, after the name of its founder, but is fre- 
quently mentioned in history by the appellation of 
New Babylon. Its form was that of an eagle, with 
expanded wings, and it contained in Pliny's time 
600,000 inhabitants. It was burned by Trajan, and 
again by Lucius Yerus ; it was also taken by Seve- 
rus, after which it was almost entirely abandoned. 
Julian found it completely deserted. 

A little below Seleucia, but on the opposite side of 
the river, was built another city, named Ctesiphon. 
It was the winter residence of the Parthian kings, 
who in summer preferred a more northern situation. 
Like its opposite neighbour, it was sacked by the 
emperor Severus, in a.d. 198. It also was largely 
indebted for its materials to the ruins of Babylon. 
Some interesting remains of it exist to this day, of 
which the Tank Kesra is the largest ancient arch of 
brickwork known, being a semicircle eighty-five feet 
wide, 106 feet high, and 150 feet long. 

A new city rose out of the ashes of Ctesiphon, 
which for awhile bore the same name, but at length 
came to be designated by the appellation of Al 
Modain ; the metropolis of the Persian kings. It 
was taken by assault, with immense spoil, by the 
Saracens, in 637 ; and, like its predecessors, sank 
under desertion and decay. 



BAGDAD. 119 

From the bricks which had served already to form 
four successive capitals, a fifth was destined to arise 
in its turn. In the year 763, Bagdad was founded 
by the Caliph Al Mansur, on the western bank, 
nearly on the site of the ancient Seleucia ; but a 
suburb on the opposite bank was gradually formed, 
and advanced to a still greater condition of magnifi- 
cence. It remained the flourishing metropolis of the 
Caliphs till 1259, when it was taken and sacked by 
the Tartars. A second time, in 1401, it suffered the 
same fate from the same foes, when a pyramid of 
ninety thousand human heads, erected on its ruins, 
displayed the dreadful vengeance of Tamerlane. 
Since that time it has suffered many calamities, one 
of the most terrible of which occurred about twenty 
years ago, when it was nearly depopulated by the 
plague, and an inundation of the Tigris. Thus, as if 
a sentence of ruin were attached to every fragment 
of ancient Babylon, Bagdad is swiftly verging to 
decay,— the fate of its predecessors. 

" This is the work of the Lord God of Hosts in 
the land of the Chaldeans. Come against her from 
the utmost border, open her store-houses : cast her 
up as heaps, and destroy her utterly : let nothing of 
her be left. ... A sword is upon the Chaldeans, 
saith the Lord. ... A sword is upon their horses, and 
upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people 
that are in the midst of her ; and they shall become 
as women : a sword is upon her treasures ; and they 
shall be robbed."* 



* Jer. 1. 25, 26, 35, 37. 



4/ 



120 THE RIVER HIDDEKEL. 



DANIEL X. 

It was upon the banks of this river, (" the great 
river, which is Hiddekel,") though in what part of 
its course we are not informed, that the beloved 
Daniel was favored with a vision of the Lord in his 
glory, and had events of great importance revealed to 
him, stretching onward from his own times to the 
latter days, days even yet not arrived. Three years 
had elapsed since Cyrus had proclaimed liberty for 
the captive Jews to return from Babylon, but com- 
paratively few had availed themselves of the permis- 
sion ; the many had learned to regard the city of 
their captivity as their home, indifferent to the deso- 
lation of Jerusalem, and forgetful of the covenant of 
Jehovah. The faithful prophet, who must now have 
been not far from ninety years of age, had mourned 
over the carelessness of his brethren, with solemn 
fasting and humiliation. For three whole w^eeks he 
had eaten no pleasant bread, nor had tasted flesh or 
wine, nor allowed himself the comforts which his 
station and his infirmities usually required. As he 
sat on the bank of the river at the end of this time, 
perhaps engaged in confession of his people's sin, 
suddenly there appeared to him the glorious form of 
One, whom, from the description of his person, we 
recognise to have been the Son of God. As when 
long afterwards He manifested himself to the beloved 
disciple, John, the Daniel of the Church, when in cap- 
tivity, — He was seen clothed in his priestly garment 
of fine linen, to express his office as the high-priest 
and mediator of his people, and his unspotted 



THE GLORY OF THE LORD. 121 

righteousness. He was girt with a girdle of gold, 
denoting his infinite holiness, and his preciousness 
in the sight of his Father, and also of his saints. 
His person had the radiant, transparent beauty of a 
precious stone, perhaps to intimate his perfect truth ; 
his face as lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, 
might show his piercing omniscience, his instant de- 
tection of evil, and his terrible wrath to his enemies ; 
while his arms and his feet of polished brass might 
express his illustrious power engaged to defend his 
people, and to tread, as in a winepress, his enemies. 
And what was the effect of this glorious vision 
upon Daniel ? He was, even by the testimony of 
heaven itself, " a man greatly beloved ;" his character, 
as far as it is recorded in the Word, seems peculiarly 
upright and spotless ; he was accustomed to commu- 
nion with God ; and from his youth had been familiar 
with heavenly visions. Yet no sooner does he see 
" the King in his beauty" than " there remains no 
strength in him ; his comeliness is turned in him to 
corruption, and he retains no strength." And so it 
has always been : the revelation of the Lord in his 
glorious holiness, must always humble and break 
down the strength of nature. Holy Job found it so. 
He had heard of God " by the hearing of the ear ;" 
but when his eye saw him, he cried out, " Behold, I 
am vile ; I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." 
Isaiah found it so ; he saw the Lord sitting upon his 
throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the 
temple ; and the effect was to evoke the cry, " "Woe 
is me ! for I am undone ; because I am a man of 
unclean lips !" Ezekiel found it so ; for the vision 
of the glory of God, which he saw, threw him upon 

6 



122 THE RIVER HIDDEKEL. 

his face, as one that had no strength. And John 
found it so. He had walked with his Lord in sweet 
companionship through the years of his public mi- 
nistry, and had been admitted to peculiar familiarity, 
even " leaning on his bosom ;" he had seen the glory 
of Jesus when transfigured upon the Holy Mount, 
when " His face did shine as the sun, and his raiment 
was white as the light ;" he had looked upon his re- 
surrection body, and had seen him when, taken up 
from the earth, He had soared away upon the cloud 
into the brightness of the Father's presence. If any 
man could have beheld the unveiled glory of the risen 
Son of Man, it would surely have been John ; yet 
when he saw him lie fell at Ms feet as dead. 

So that blessed consummation, which every believer 
ought to be looking for with earnest hope, the speedy 
return of Jesus to the Church, according to the 
closing promise of his word, " Behold ! I come 
quickly," if it were to take place in our present 
condition of being, so far from filling us with un- 
speakable joy, would only be a ministration of dismay 
and terror. These vile bodies could not bear the 
effulgence of his person, " coming in his own glory, 
and in the glory of his Father, and in the glory of 
his holy angels ;" and hence it is graciously ordained 
that at the very instant of his appearing, " in a mo- 
ment, in the twinkling of an eye," " this corruptible 
shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on 
immortality ;" our vile body, changed and " fashioned 
like unto his glorious body," and made a fit helpmate 
for the glorified spirit, shall be able to gaze upon the 
full radiance of Jesus, and find the chief element of 
everlasting joy to consist in that beatific vision. 



III. 



THE EIYER CHEBAE. 



The Captivity of Israel. — The Khabor — The Greater Zab — 
Koordistan — Lakes — The Flamingo — Mountains — The Koords — 
The Chaldeans — The Yezidis — Halah — Habor — Gozan — Hara — 
Adiabene — The Siege of Samaria — Sieges in the Assyrian Sculp- 
tures. 

The Vision of the Glory of God. — Ezekiel — The Shechinah — The 
Kingly Glory— The Cherubim— The Wheels— The Throne— The 
Departure of the Glory — The Rejection of Israel — The Return of 
the Throne — Universal Blessing. 

1 CHRON. V. 26. 2 KINGS XVII. 6. 

Among the rugged mountains of Chaldea, about a 
day's journey to the north of the spot where stand 
the northernmost ruins of ancient Nineveh, are the 
sources of the river Khabor. This stream pursues 
for the greater part of its length a north-west course, 
almost parallel with the line of the Tigris, but in the 
very opposite direction, and separated from it by 
a range of hills. At length it turns to the south- 
west, and after a course of about seventy miles, 
empties itself into the Tigris, a little below the town 
of Jezireh. 

Through the same mountains, but having its rise 
considerably farther to the north, at an elevation of 
7,000 feet above the sea, flows the Greater Zab. Its 
principal source is nearly midway between the Lakes 



124 THE RIVER CHEBAR. 

of Van and Urumiyah ; and after pursuing a winding 
course of more than 200 miles, parts of which, are 
scarcely known to Europeans, and receiving several 
affluents, it pours a deep stream, sixty feet wide, 
into the Tigris, close to the southern boundary of 
the ancient city, which was built in the angle of the 
two rivers. 

The mountains of Koordistan, through which flow 
the streams just described, are very elevated ; and 
Mount Ararat, which may be considered as their 
northern extremity, is the loftiest peak in Western 
Asia, its summit being 17,310 feet above the sea. 
Ridges branch off from this renowned mountain to 
the south and south-west, enclosing the wild and 
picturesque Lake Yan, and then spread themselves 
on either hand, until the whole space between the 
Plain of Urumiyah, and the valley of the Tigris, a 
region about 180 miles in width, is occupied by 
rugged precipitous mountains, and deep romantic 
glens and valleys. Those ridges which surround 
Lake Yan are very lofty, many of the peaks being 
white with perpetual snow. The mountain chain 
that runs along the western edge of this region is 
of scarcely less altitude ; but between their snowy 
barrier and the Lake Urumiyah, there is a plain of 
great fertility, comprising an area of 500 square 
miles, covered with three hundred villages and 
hamlets. Many streams of dear cool water from the 
adjacent mountains run through the plain, and irri- 
gate the numerous fields and gardens with which its 
bosom is covered ; the former rich with waving crops 
or luxuriant verdure, the latter with flowers and 
fruits of many kinds. The landscape is described as 



v 



LAKES. 125 

one of the most lovely that can be imagined ; the 
effect being heightened by the contrast of such exu- 
berant fertility and beanty with the stern and 
rugged grandeur of the mountain sides, that form 
the background of the picture ; while in the plain, 
the willows, poplars, and sycamores by the water- 
courses, and the groves of fruit trees, the peach, 
apple, pear, quince, apricot, plum and cherry, toge- 
ther with the luxuriant vineyards, give to large 
sections the appearance of a rich and variegated 
forest. 

Lake Urumiyah, along whose side this lovely and 
verdant plain is spread, is about eighty miles in 
length and thirty in width. Lake Van is nearly of 
the same size, but is somewhat triangular in form. 
The waters of these mountain lakes, though upwards 
of 5,000 feet above the sea-level, are very salt. That 
of Van is so impregnated with alkali, that the people 
surrounding it employ it for making soap, but the 
salt from Urumiyah is sufficiently pure for culinary 
purposes. The water of the latter is so salt, that a 
man will sink in it no lower than his shoulders, and 
no fishes live in it. Lake Van, however, abounds in 
fish. Many species of aquatic birds frequent their 
shores, among which the beautiful flamingo is con- 
spicuous, often occurring in flocks, which spread 
themselves along the shore for miles in length. This 
noble bird is marked by the great length of its legs, 
and of its neck, and still more by its plumage, which 
is of the richest and most brilliant scarlet all over, 
except the quill feathers of the wings, which are deep 
black. As these fine birds are five or six feet high, 
when erect, and as they have the habit of ranging 



126 



THE RIVER CHEBAR. 



themselves in long lines at the water's edge, where 
they feed, they present to a spectator at a distance, 




■bBSP*^ 






The Flamingo. 



the appearance of a regiment of soldiers marshalled 
in order of battle, perfect in symmetry, uniformity, 
and brilliancy. Such a deceptive sight is often 
witnessed on the verdant shores of these elevated 
lakes. 

The whole of the region above described is of the 
wildest character. Hoary peaks of many fantastic 
forms rear their snow-capped summits toward heaven, 
and many precipitous chasms, descending to a terrific 



MOUNTAINS. 127 

depth, make the traveller tremble as he looks down 
them. The only road in many places winds along 
the face of an almost perpendicular rock, where a 
single false step would hurl the hapless victim to 
a dreadful death far below ; and often it diminishes to 
a mere ledge, scarcely w r ide enough to allow the foot 
to be placed on it ; or here and there disappears 
entirely, leaving gaps w^hich can be passed only by 
leaping from ledge to ledge. The less elevated sum- 
mits are frequently crowned with fortresses almost 
impregnable, from the difficulty of access ; and 
sometimes these are placed on isolated rocks, with 
sides scarcely less abrupt than a wall. 

The rocky cliffs are broken by many a yawning 
ravine, through each of which a torrent pours its 
foaming waters, frequently dividing into a hundred 
little streams, breaking into silvery cascades over the 
jutting points, and falling in clouds of spray into the 
dark glen beneath, along the bottom of which it 
struggles and winds, till it at length issues into the 
bosom of a wider valley, watered by a wider rivulet. 
Many of these streams flow through the mountains, 
half concealed by the blushing oleanders that bloom 
in rich abundance along their narrow banks. In 
these sheltered vales the mulberry, the fig, the olive, 
the pomegranate and the walnut produce their plen- 
teous fruit ; and fields of maize and sesame are 
varied by plots of the cotton-shrub. Forests of oaks 
grow along the mountain sides, the galls of which 
form no inconsiderable article of commerce. Flocks 
of sheep and goats are kept upon the hills, though 
the former frequently suffer from the depredations 
of the bears, which are numerous and formidable. 



128 THE RIVER CHEBAR. 

Antelopes are sometimes seen in the valleys ; and 
the ibex, with its huge knotted horns, congregates in 
groups upon the ledges and points of rock, gazing 
in conscious security on the approaching stranger ; 
but so wary are they, that long before he can come 
within range, they have bounded away to the inac- 
cessible summits of the mountains, rousing the 
eagle from his lofty nest as they pass. 

Two distinct races of men dwell in these mountain 
fastnesses. The first are the Koords, a warlike peo- 
ple, professing, though with some laxity, the religion 
of Islam. They are doubtless descended from the 
primitive inhabitants of the country, and their name 
may be identified with that of the ancient Cordians, 
or Oarducheans. Nominally their country is divided 
between Turkey and Persia, but practically they are 
almost independent, and some of the more powerful 
tribes are avowedly so. Some of them reside 
habitually in villages, but others lead a roving life, 
pasturing their cattle where they please, and residing 
in tents of black goat's hair. Like the Arabs, whom 
in habits they somewhat resemble, they live largely 
by plunder, robbing and murdering any whom they 
can overcome. They frequently engage in predatory 
excursions, assembling a numerous party of horsemen, 
well mounted and equipped, and coming down upon 
a village in the dead of night. Thus they manage 
to take a large booty before the sleeping villagers are 
ready to defend themselves. If pursued by a stronger 
force, they have only to strike their tents, and flee to 
their impregnable strongholds in the mountains. 

The other race is commonly known by the name 
of Nestorians, but they themselves prefer the appel- 



THE NESTORIANS THE YEZIDIS. 129 

lation of Chaldeans. They speak a distinct language, 
the ancient Syriac, and profess the Christian religion, 
which they received at a very early period, perhaps 
even in apostolic days. They cultivate fields and 
vineyards, but are principally a pastoral people, pos- 
sessing large flocks of sheep and goats, in which their 
principal wealth consists. Dwelling in fixed habi- 
tations commonly constructed of stone, and associ- 
ated in extensive villages, with ancient churches, 
they yet perform a partial annual migration. A 
large number of the people retire to the higher 
pastures during the summer months, where they 
pitch their tents and tend their flocks, returning to 
their villages on the approach of winter, which in 
this climate is sufficiently severe. They manifest 
much primitive simplicity of manners, are moral, 
hospitable, industrious, and peaceable ; yet they 
possess the fearless independence of spirit, and wil- 
lingness to stand in defence of their lives, liberty, 
and property, that are commonly found in moun- 
taineers.* 

There is yet another people, who perhaps may be 
distinct from either of the above races, the Yezidis, 
who, from their fear of and respect for the evil spirit, 
are commonly known as Devil-worshippers. These 
people, who are not very numerous, speak a dialect 
of the Koordish language, but are by some supposed 

* In a most interesting work, entitled "The Nestorians, or the 
Lost Tribes," by Dr. Grant, the identity of this people with the 
captive tribes of Israel is maintained and supported by so many and 
so cogent evidences, as to leave scarcely a doubt on the reader's mind 
that here still remains, professing the Christian faith, the " Stick. 
of Ephraim," which Jehovah will yet reunite to the " Stick of 
Judah," and they shall become one in his hand. (Ezek. xxxvii.) 

6* 



130 THE RIVER CHEBAR. 

to be descended from the Manicheans, and of Hebrew 
origin. 

The region whose physical characteristics and in- 
habitants we have been describing is now called 
Koordistan, but it was anciently Assyria Proper. 
This term must not be confounded with the Assyrian 
empire, which was of far wider limits, embracing in 
its broadest dominion many surrounding countries. 
It is interesting as being the region into which the 
ten tribes of Israel were carried captive by Tiglath- 
pileser, Shalmaneser and Esarhaddon, in whose 
reigns the Assyrian monarchy seems to have been 
confined to this region, the kingdoms of Media and 
of Babylonia still maintaining, though precariously, 
against the increasing power of the former, the in- 
dependence which they had recently achieved. 

The first of these monarchs is said to have carried 
away the Reubenites and the Gadites, and the half- 
tribe of Manasseh, (the tribes that dwelt to the east 
of the Jordan,) " and brought them unto Halah, and 
Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this 
day." And the same localities with trifling variation 
are assigned to the remainder of the ten tribes, who 
were removed by Shalmaneser about nineteen years 
afterwards. He " took Samaria and carried Israel 
away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and 
in Habor [by] the river of Gozan, and in the cities 
of the Medes." 

These names appear to have been very satisfactorily 
identified by Dr. Grant, the American missionary 
to the Nestorians. The name of Halah is probably 
the same with that of Calah of Gen. x. 11, one of 
the cities built by Nimrod in Assyria, apparently 



HABOR GOZAN HARA. 131 

near Nineveh. Early Syrian commentators say that 
Calah was the same as the modern Hatareh, which 
is about fourteen miles north of Mosul. It probably 
gave name to the district of Chalah, which, according 
to ancient geographers, extended from the Tigris to 
the Zab, winch would thus include part of the 
region under consideration. 

Habor, there seems to be scarcely a doubt, is the 
modern Khabor. There are two rivers of this name, 
one falling into the Euphrates, the other into the 
Tigris ; they are not very far from each other, but 
the latter, from the names with which it is here 
associated, is doubtless the one intended. 

Gozan is said to signify pasture. The Nestorians 
use the term, (slightly altered to Zozan, by a change 
of letters not at all uncommon,) for the highlands on 
which they pasture their numerous flocks in summer. 
The whole region through which the Elabor and the 
Zab flow is of this character ; but as being the larger 
stream, Dr. Grant supposes the latter to be emphati- 
cally " the river of Gozan " intended. The word hy 
it will be perceived is in italics in our Bibles, which 
intimates that there is no word answering to it in 
the original, but that it has been supplied by the 
translators, to aid, as they supposed, the sense. 

The word Hara occurs only in the passage in 
Chronicles, but is not found in the Septuagint or 
Syriac renderings (both very ancient versions) of 
that text. Professor Robinson supposes it to have 
been an explanatory note appended in the margin 
by a transcriber, as it signifies u a mountainous 
region," and is very appropriate ; and that it gradually 
became incorporated with the text. 



132 THE RIVER CHEBAR. 

The cities, or villages (Syr. and Yulg.), or moun- 
tains (LXX.), of the Medes are probably those on 
the borders of Media, as that country was at this 
time independent of Assyria. It embraced, however, 
a part of the same mountain region. 

The central portion of this elevated country was 
known in the time of the Greeks by the name of 
Adiabene, probably derived from that of Zab. And 
here we find the ten tribes were living in the time 
of Josephus ; for Agrippa in his famous speech to 
the Jews speaks of their fellow tribes dwelling in 
Adiabene, and in the power of the Parthians. 

Hither then it was, we may safely believe, that 
the inhabitants of Samaria, Galilee, and the region 
beyond Jordan, the ten tribes of Israel who had 
revolted from the house of David, were carried away 
captive. They had revolted from Jehovah also, and 
had greedily adopted a base idolatry, the worship of 
the golden calves at Bethel and at Dan. Many 
solemn warnings were sent to them; the burdens 
uttered by Amos, Joel, Hosea and Micah, the 
preaching and miracles of Elijah and Elisha, and 
many premonitory judgments, — all failed to arrest 
their downward career of idolatry and iniquity : at 
length the wrath of Jehovah arose against them, and 
there was no remedy. 

Samaria, the capital city, sustained the force of 
v the Assyrian army for three years. Whether the 
horrors that she underwent were equal to those which 
she had suffered on a former occasion, when besieged 
by the Syrians under Benhadad, is not recorded. 
Jehovah had now given her up, and written Lo-ammi 
upon her people ; and her distresses were not worthy 



SIEGES IN THE ASSYRIAN SCULFIURES. 



133 



of being related in his word with minute particu- 
larity. The guilty city, however, was at length 
taken, and her king with his people " plucked up 
out of the land." The Lord was very angry with 
Israel, and removed them out of his sight. 




An Assyrian Siege. 



The monumental marbles of Nineveh, recently 
brought to light, give us many graphic representa- 
tions of sieges and assaults of fortified cities by the 
Assyrian forces, and thus afford us important in- 
formation as to how they were conducted. One of 
these, now in the British Museum, is of particular 
interest, as containing illustrations of most of the 
devices of attack and defence usually employed, as 
well as of the carrying away of captives. 

A city is represented, consisting of many towers, 
defended by pointed battlements, with a small river 
at its base. Against it the Assyrian army is engaged, 
led by the king in person, who is seen shooting at 
the garrison with an arrow, while his shield-bearer 
holds up his buckler in front, and two eunuchs behind 
carry his arms and his parasol. Near the king some 
warriors are seen, with crow-bars wrenching the 
stones out of the wall to open a breach. Scaling- 



134 THE RIVER CHEBAR. 

ladders are set up against the wall, up which the 
soldiers climb, holding their shields above their 
heads, and seeking, by dislodging the defenders with 
their spears, to make good their footing on the bat- 
tlements. 

In another part of the wall we see the battering- 
ram, which has broken down many of the stones. 
It is armed by a thick, blunt mass of metal, not 
moulded into the form of an animal's head; its 
blows seem to have been directed diagonally upwards. 
It is covered by a moveable house, in which are con- 
cealed the men and machinery by which it is moved ; 
the front part rises into a lofty tower, as high as the 
battlements of the city; and here are placed two 
warriors, one of whom discharges his arrows at the 
garrison, while the other defends him by holding up 
a large shield. The ram-house, and part of the 
tower, are covered with hurdles or hides. The de- 
fenders strive to destroy the ram by catching it with 
chains, and by throwing down fire upon the house ; 
but the effect of the latter is obviated by water 
poured out of the tower, and that of the former by 
men below, who, having thrown another chain over 
the ram, hang upon it with their whole weight. The 
bow is the principal weapon of war in use, both by 
the besiegers and the defenders ; the arrows of the 
former are represented as taking fatal effect, and 
several of the latter are seen falling headlong from 
the walls. 

In another part of the scene, the capture and de- 
portation of the inhabitants are intimated. A warrior 
is driving off with blows several females, who seem 
to bewail their fate by tearing their hair, or by cast- 



SIEGES IN THE ASSYRIAN SCULPTURES. 135 

ing dust on their heads. One of the women is 
attended by a child about half grown, on whose head 
she lays her hand. Horned cattle also are driven off 
by the side of the captives. 

In a scene copied by Mr. Layard, in his valuable 
work, " Nineveh and its Remains," there is an inte- 
resting illustration of our subject. The Assyrians 
are besieging a walled city, consisting of many lofty 
towers, situated in a wooded and mountainous coun- 
try, through which runs a river. The besiegers 
have planted their scaling ladders against the walls, 
and are mounting to the assault. They are armed 
with coats of mail, girt with a girdle, and furnished 
with a double belt crossing on the back and breast. 
They wear elegant crested helmets, and their legs 
are defended by greaves. Each carries a large cir- 
cular shield of wicker, probably covered with hides, 
and a spear in his hand ; and most of them carry a 
straight sword at the side, or a dagger in the girdle. 
Some shoot towards the battlements with bows. The 
walls of the city are thronged with the defenders, 
who are differently accoutred from their assailants. 
They wear a close skull-cap, and carry a shield of an 
oblong-square form. Some of them pour their arrows 
on the besiegers, others defend the battlements with 
long spears, and many have no other weapons than 
large stones, which they fling down with the hand on 
their enemies' heads. Their shields and the crevices 
of the battlements bristle with the arrows which 
have been shot at them ; and some of the garrison, 
with arrows sticking in them, are falling wounded 
from the walls. In another part of this picture, 
separated by a line from the scene of conflict, is 



136 THE RIVER CHEBAR. 

represented (as in the preceding ease) the result : 
the carrying away of the prisoners into captivity. 
The men are made to march two and two, their 
hands bound together by manacles round the wrists, 
some before, and others behind the back ; while the 
women walk before, carrying household utensils in 
their hands, and bags upon their backs. A mailed 
warrior follows each group of captives, holding the 
hindmost with the rope with which his hands are 
bound, or by the hair of his head ; while he gratifies 
his cruelty, or else urges their speed, by blows with 
a stout staff, or with the butt end of the spear that 
he carries in his hand. 

In other sculptures, " eunuchs and scribes are 
appointed to take an inventory of the spoil. They 
appear to have stood near the gates, and to have 
written down with a pen, probably upon rolls of 
leather, the number of prisoners, sheep, and oxen, 
and the amount of the booty which issued from the 
city. The women were sometimes taken away in 
bullock-carts, and are usually seen in the bas-reliefs 
bearing a part of their property with them ; — either 
a vase or a sack, perhaps filled with household stuff. 
They were sometimes accompanied by their children, 
and are generally represented as tearing their hair, 
throwing dust upon their heads, and bewailing their 

lot."* 

.- ^ 

EZEKIEL I. XI. 

It was to this captive people that Ezekiel the 
priest delivered his prophecies, about eighty years 

* Layard's Nineveh, vol. ii. p. 375. 



THE VISION OF THE GLORY OF GOD. 137 

after the last remnant had been removed from Sa- 
maria by Esarhaddon. Nineveh was now no more ; 
the devouring fire had raged in her lofty palaces, and 
had consumed her pleasant furniture : she was now a 
heap of ruins, already partially buried in that " grave" 
with which Jehovah had threatened her, and which 
was soon entirely to close over her, blotting out her 
glory, and almost the place of her existence, from the 
memory of man. 

And it was by the river of Chebar that the prophet 
stood, when he saw the awful but beautiful visions of 
the Glory of God, and of the ministering cherubim ; 
when the desolating judgments about to come upon 
rebellious Jerusalem were revealed to him ; and when 
he received the bitter roll of the book, written within 
and without with "lamentations, and mourning, and 
woe." 

It had been the peculiar glory of Israel, that from 
their very first existence as a nation, and their sepa- 
ration from the idolatrous Gentiles round about, 
Jehovah had dwelt among them in visible manifes- 
tation. In the pillar of the cloud by day, and of fire 
by night, He had defended, sheltered, directed, and 
illuminated them, and terrified and afflicted their 
enemies. On the summit of Sinai, in terrible ma- 
jesty, the " fiery law" had been given, from a cloud 
and thick darkness, while "the smoke ascended as the 
smoke of a furnace," and the whole mount quaked 
greatly. And when the beauteous tabernacle was 
made, for a dwelling-place for Jehovah of Hosts, 
" then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, 
and the Glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." 
Thenceforward through their journey ings in the wil- 



138 THE RIVER CHEBAR. 

derness, the cloud by day and the fire by night rested 
over the tent in the sight of all Israel, while the 
Shechinah itself, or the luminous presence of God, 
was shrouded under the beautiful veil, in the solitude 
of the Holy of Holies, where it dwelt above the mercy 
seat, between the cherubim. 

After the entrance of Israel into the Promised 
Land, the Glory of God, that so long had sojourned 
in a shifting tent, became stationary, and dwelt 
among them ; and though for a little while, in con- 
sequence of abounding iniquity, '• He forsook the 
tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among 
men, and delivered his strength into captivity, and 
his glory into the enemy's hands," it was that He 
might pour contempt upon the helpless idols, and get 
honour to Himself among the heathen. Ungrateful 
Israel, it is true, little esteemed the high privilege of 
a present God, and were content with a human king, 
" like the nations ;" thus the ark lay long in neglect, 
while the chosen people rejected the government of 
Jehovah, and hoped for the prosperity th^y sought 
in the rule of one from among themselves. But even 
this rejection the Lord overruled to fulfil his own 
purpose of setting up a royal throne on the holy Hill 
of Zion, where, by-and-by, his own King shall rule in 
righteousness, " as the light of the morning when 
the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds." 

A while longer the glory of Jehovah " abode in 
curtains," until the conquering David had thoroughly 
subdued the kingdom to himself ; and then began 
the magnificent and peaceful reign of Solomon " on 
the throne of the Lord," not only typifying the 
peace and righteousness, and prosperity of the 



THE KINGLY GLORY. 139 

coming kingdom, but also, in the erection of the 
magnificent temple, foreshadowing the true " Man 
of rest," of whom it is said, " Even He shall build 
the temple of the Lord, and He shall bear the glory, 
and shall sit and rule upon his throne." No sooner 
was the glorious temple completed, than " the cloud 
filled the house of the Lord ; so that the priests 
could not stand to minister because of the cloud ; 
for the Glory of the Lord had filled the house of the 
Lord." 

The departure of this Glory, through the incorri- 
gible apostasy of Israel, was what was revealed in 
vision to Ezekiel. Ten tribes had openly revolted 
from the house of David, God's king, and from the 
worship of Jehovah ; and they had at length, as we 
have already seen, been uprooted from their land, 
and carried into captivity. Judah still remained, but 
was fast treading in the steps of Israel ; the cup of 
Jerusalem's iniquity was almost full, and the grieved 
and insulted Glory was preparing to leave the sanc- 
tuary, — lingering, indeed, retiring with slow steps, 
as loth to leave his city, and give up " the beloved 
of his soul into the hands of her enemies." 

The vision which Ezekiel saw was that of the 
Kingly Glory of Jehovah. Israel's throne was the 
place where He had been, exercising direct and osten- 
sible dominion upon earth, the nations having been 
left, as far as regards apparent interposition, to 
follow their own courses uncontrolled. The many- 
formed living creatures we consider as representing 
the executive administration of his will and purposes 
in heaven, while the lofty and involved wheels denote 
the same thing upon earth. 



! 



140 THE RIVER CIIEBAR. 

The prophet was among the captives on the banks 
of the Chebar, when he perceived a whirlwind coming 
out of the north with a great cloud. This denoted 
the terrible desolation that was about to fall on Jeru- 
salem from Babylon. He saw also a fire infolding 
itself, and diffusing a brightness around out of the 
midst of which proceeded four living creatures. Their 
characteristic form was that of man ; but each had 
four faces ; each also had hands and feet, and four 
wings. As man had been made in the image and 
after the likeness of God, so the human form of 
these symbolic creatures represented the essential 
attributes of God as revealed in the Son ; while the 
wings, feet, and different faces marked the Divine 
perfections in action or manifestation. 

The faces were, first, that of a man, expressive of 
intelligence and reason ; secondly, that of a lion, 
denoting majesty and power ; thirdly, that of an ox, 
indicating strength exercised in patient long-suffer- 
ing ; and fourthly, that of an eagle, marking piercing 
discernment and rapidity of action. 

The feet were the cleft feet of the ox, which are 
used to tread out the corn, separating the chaff from 
the wheat. They thus express judgment on the 
earth, dividing the righteous from the wicked, and 
treading down the latter in fury ; while their perfect 
holiness in trampling on that which is so defiling, is 
signified by their " sparkling like the colour of bur- 
nished brass." The hands denote the skilfulness and 
precision with which the purposes of the Divine intel- 
ligence are carried out, connecting themselves with 
the human face, as the feet with that of the ox,* and 
the wings with that of the eagle. The latter organs 



THE WHEELS THE THRONE. 141 

represent the rapidity of action in heaven, consequent 
on the will of God. " The living creatures ran and 
returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning." 

The terrible beauty of these symbolic beings is 
thus described : — " Their appearance was like burn- 
ing coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps : 
it went up and down among the living creatures ; 
and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth 
lightning." These burning lamps of fire doubtless 
signify the Spirit of God (Rev. iv. 5), illuminating, 
convincing, consuming as He will. 

Now, the prophet discerned a new feature in the 
mystic scene ; which, from having been in heaven, 
seems now to be brought down to earth. A wheel 
so vast in its circumference, and so lofty, as to be 
dreadful to look upon, was seen beside each of the 
cherubim ; they were full of eyes round about, and 
there was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a 
wheel. These wheels were animated by the spirit of 
the living creatures, and seem to represent rapid 
action on ea/rth, as the wings do, in heaven. The 
expression of the will of Jehovah is instantly obeyed 
in heaven or in earth : " He doeth according to his 
will in the army of heaven, and among the in- 
habitants of the earth." 

The action of the vision was upon the earth, for 
" the firmament was over their heads ;" but " above 
the firmament was the likeness of a throne, as the 
appearance of a sapphire-stone : and upon the like- 
ness of 'the throne was the likeness as the appearance 
of-* -a man above upon it." Surely this glorious 
person was none other than the Eternal Word, after- 
wards' to be made flesh ; thus manifesting before- 



142 THE RIVER CHEBAR. 

hand his beauteous form, into which every saint is 
destined finally to be transformed. 

Many subsequent visions of the Glory of God and 
of the ministering cherubs were seen by Ezekiel, 
either at different parts of the river Chebar, or in 
the contiguous plain ; and there were revealed to 
him in vivid distinctness, the horrible abominations 
committed in Jerusalem, and the miseries and over- 
whelming destruction which He that sat on the 
throne was about to bring upon it. 

In one of these glorious manifestations, the prgphet 
had been caught by the locks of his head, and carried 
by the Spirit of God through the air to Jerusalem, 
either in reality, (as afterwards happened to Philip,) 
or in vision ; and there he saw the dreadful apostasy 
of the chosen people of God. In a secret chamber 
in the courts of the temple, were seventy ancients of 
the house of Israel, burning incense before a host of 
idols, "creeping things and abominable beasts," 
whose forms, as in the temples of the heathen, were 
portrayed upon the wall round about. Then he 
was brought to the door of the Lord's house, where 
sat women weeping for Tammuz, probably a deified 
man, the commemoration of whose death was 
attended with the most infamous practices. And, 
finally, between the very porch and the altar, were 
five-and-twenty men worshipping the rising sun, with 
their backs towards the sanctuary of Jehovah. 

When this had been shown to the wondering 
prophet, the visible Glory left the place where it had 
hitherto dwelt between the cherubim, and stood at 
the threshold of the house, where the commission to 
destroy the guilty city was given to the ministers of 



THE DEPARTURE OF THE GLORY. 143 

the Divine vengeance. After this, coals of fire were 
scattered over the city, to express the conflagra- 
tion to which it would be soon subjected ; and then 
the Glory makes another remove, and stands over 
the threshold, as ready to depart. Another lingering 
pause, — and the Glory of the Lord departed from 
the threshold, to some little distance, and stood over 
the cherubim ; and they, expanding their ample 
wings, all lustrous with many eyes, mounted up 
from earth, with the wheels beside them, and made 
another pause over the portals of the eastern gate of 
the temple. But before the visible manifestation of 
Jehovah's gracious presence departs from Jerusalem, 
He sends a message of love and comfort to his 
people, whom in fatherly chastisement He had for a 
while rejected, promising to be to them " a little 
sanctuary ' in the countries where they should 
come ; and, finally, to restore them in reconciliation 
and forgiveness to the land of Israel, in which they 
shall dwell in peace, and righteousness, and newness 
of spirit; they his people, and He their God. 
" Then did the cherubim lift up their wings, and the 
wheels beside them, and the Glory of the God of 
Israel was over them above. And the Glory of the 
Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood 
upon the mountain, which is on the east side of the 
city," even the Mount of Olives ; and this was its last 
resting-place, for presently the whole glorious vision 
went up from the sight of the prophet into heaven. 

Henceforward we find no manifestation of the 
kingly Glory of Jehovah on earth. He can no longer 
own his apostate people, but gives them up to be 
scattered among the nations ; while supreme earthly 



144 THE RIVER CHEBAR. 

dominion is taken away from Jerusalem, where 
hitherto it had been exercised, and given to the 
Gentiles. Fonr monarchies in succession, Babylon, 
Persia, Greece, and Rome, henceforth wield the 
sceptre of earthly power, until the dominion shall be 
restored to the throne of David, and He shall exer- 
cise it, " whose right it is." 

For a few centuries, an interval of rest and of 
partial restoration was granted to Judah, a mitiga- 
tion of their bondage ; but the throne of David 
remained unoccupied ; and when the rightful heir, 
Son of David and Son of God, presented Himself as 
their King, his claims were denied, his person re- 
jected ; and the crucifixion of God's chosen King 
sealed up at once the iniquity and the tribulation of 
Israel. 

The rejected " King of the Jews " once more 
ascended from the Mount of Olives, and has found 
his place at the right hand of the Majesty in the 
heavens. He is seated on his Father's throne, until 
the time shall come for Him to assume his own, 
(Rev. iii. 21,) which will not be until Israel are ready 
to say, " Blessed is He that cometh in the name of 
the Lord !" But that time will come ! 

One more vision of the Glory of God was vouch- 
safed to Ezeldel. After a long course of prophecy, in 
which woe after woe is pronounced on Judah and the 
nations, bright days of blessing are predicted : Gog, 
that last terrible enemy, is slain upon the mountains 
of Israel ; the city and the temple are rebuilt in 
unprecedented grandeur, and every thing is prepared 
for the reception of the " King of righteousness and 
King of peace." And then He returns after the 



UNIVERSAL BLESSING. 145 

long and dreary absence ; and the enraptured seer 
once more beholds the winged cherubim, and the 
radiant wheels, and the sapphire throne, even as he 
had seen at first. " And behold, the Glory of the 
God of Israel came from the way of the east ; and 
his voice was like a noise of many waters ; and the 
earth shined with his glory. . . . And the Glory of 
the Lord came into the house by the way of the 
gate whose prospect is towards the east. So the 
Spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner 
court ; and behold, the Glory of the Lord filled the 
house. And I heard him speaking unto me out of 
the house ; and the man stood by me. And He said 
unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and 
the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell 
in the midst of the children of Israel for ever." So 
the name of the city, from that day, shall be Jehovah- 
Shammah, or, The Lord there. 

O blessed day of righteousness, and peace, and 
joy ! O happy " times of restitution !" when Satan 
having been bound and shut up, and all enemies put 
under his feet, Jesus shall reign over a ransomed 
world ! The groaning and travailing creation, earth 
oppressed with misery and sin, shall be delivered 
from the bondage of corruption into the glorious 
liberty of the children of God. All things that 
offend, and they which do iniquity, shall be purged 
out of his kingdom, and the righteous shall shine 
forth as the sun. All who have known and loved 
him during the time of his rejection, shall now be 
gathered to him : his dead shall be raised, and his 
living ones shall be changed, and both shall put on 
their incorruptible bodies of light and glory. The 

7 



146 THE RIVER CHEBAR. 

whole Bride of the Lamb will be then perfected ; 
and being arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, — 
the resplendent righteousness of Him who died to 
redeem her, — the marriage of the Lamb shall come. 
It will be " the day of his espousals, and the day of 
the gladness of his heart." Heaven shall rejoice, 
and ring with reiterated Hallelujahs, — " for the Lord 
God omnipotent reigneth !" Earth shall echo back 
the chorus of joy, " The Lord reigneth, let the earth 
rejoice : let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. 
Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, 
and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap 
their hands ; let the hills be joyful together before 
the Lord, for He cometh to judge the earth : with 
righteousness shall He judge the world, and the 
people with equity." * 

" Come then, and, added to thy many crowns, 
Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth, 
Thou who alone art worthy ! It was thine 
By ancient covenant, ere Nature's birth ; 
And thou hast made it thine by purchase since, 
And overpaid its value with thy blood. 
Thy saints proclaim thee King ; and in their hearts 
Thy title is engraven with a pen 
Dipp'd in the fountain of eternal love. 
Thy saints proclaim thee King ; and thy delay 
Gives courage to thy foes, who, could they see 
The dawn of thy last advent, long desired, 
Would creep into the bowels of the hills, 
And flee for safety to the falling rocks. 

Come then, and, added to thy many crowns 
Receive yet one, as radiant as the rest, 
Due to thy last and most effectual work, 
Thy word fulfill'd, the conquest of a world i" t 

* For many of the thoughts on this Vision the author has been 
indebted to a valuable paper on the subject in the Christian Witness, 
(Plymouth, 1337,) vol. i. p. 217. 

t Cowper's Task, book vi. 

V 



IV. 

THE EIYER ITLAI. 



Topography. — Uncertainty of Identification — The Abzal — Dizful — 
Khuzistan — Climate — Vegetable Productions — Animals — Ruins 
of Susa — Ancient Relics — Tomb of Daniel — Lions — the Royal 
River. 

Daniel's Vision. — The Two-homed Ram — The One-horned Goat — 
Symbolic Animals — The Little Horn — Fulfilment of the Prophecy 
— Ultimate result. 

Haman and Esther. — Ahasuerus' Banquet — Hainan's Plot — His 
Defeat — Prosperity of the Jews. 

Considerable uncertainty has prevailed among 
learned men, as to what modern river represents the 
ancient Illai of Daniel, the Eulseus of the Greek 
geographers. Three or four streams have contended 
for the identity : the Kerah, or Kerkhah, which falls 
into the Shat el Arab ; the Abzal, or Dizful, and the 
Karun, which unite into one river, and fall into one 
of the mouths by which the Shat el Arab enters the 
Persian Gulf; and finally, the Abi-shapur, which 
rises near the Kerkhah, and falls into the Karun. 
Of these, however, the first seems to be excluded by 
the fact that Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander 
the Great, sailed from the Persian Gulf to Susa, 

147 



148 THE RIVER ULAI. 

without ascending the Shat el Arab. And the claims 
of the Karun rest on the supposition that the ruins 
of an ancient city on its banks are those of Shushan 
the Palace ; though it seems sufficiently proved, that 
they are only those of a city built by Shapur, (Sapor,) 
the Persian king, in the third century. 

Mr. Kinneir considers the Abzal to be the Ulai. 
This river rises in the mountains of Irak, and flows 
nearly south, through a space of about four and a 
half degrees of latitude, till, as has been already said, 
it enters the Gulf, having been joined at some dis- 
tance above by the Karun. The only place of any 
note on this river, is the town of Dizful, which is 
situate on its east bank, in a beautiful and spacious 
plain. It contains a population of about 20,000 
souls, and is noted for its elegant bridge of twenty- 
two arches, the work of Sapor ; the river is here 
about 300 yards wide. About twenty miles below 
the town, the Abzal is joined by the Karun, and 
these rivers united form the ancient Pasitigris. 

The country through which all these rivers flow is 
the modern province of Khuzistan, a part of the 
kingdom of Persia, and formed in ancient days the 
kingdom of Susiana, which was governed by Abra- 
dates, the friend and ally of Cyrus. On his death 
it became incorporated with the dominions of the 
Persian monarch. 

The northern part of this region is hilly ; the 
central portion is an extensive plain, in many places 
very fertile ; but towards the south and east this de- 
generates into a barren sandy desert, occasionally 
intersected by extensive morasses. The banks of the 






CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS. 



149 



rivers are the only situations in this part that are 
capable of cultivation, where rice and a little wheat 
and barley are raised. There are also a few planta- 
tions of date-trees. The higher portions of the pro- 
vince include several extensive valleys, distinguished 
for their fertility and picturesque beauty. 




• 



Sugar Canes and Foppies. 



The climate is so healthy that the region is the 
resort of a great number of invalids from the sur- 



150 THE RIVER ULAI. 

rounding provinces. In summer the heat is great, 
and the inhabitants reside in subterranean cellars 
for the sake of the coolness which they possess, 
sleeping by night in the open air on the house-tops. 
The winters are mild, and the springs peculiarly de- 
lightful. Near the rivers already named, the soil is 
rich and the crops abundant. The sugar-cane is ex- 
tensively cultivated, and grows in great luxuriance ; 
the quantity and excellence of the sugar manufac- 
tured here is considered as giving name to the pro- 
vince, for Khuzistan is said to signify sugar country. 
Indigo is cultivated around Dizful, and in the neigh- 
bourhood of Sinister a great quantity of opium is 
produced from the large and beautiful oriental 
poppy. 

Among the animals of this region may be men- 
tioned the wild ass, " used to the wilderness, that 
snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure." This is a 
beautiful and active animal, and so swift that it can 
be hunted down only by relays of horses and dogs ; 
it is of a light mouse brown, with the same black 
cross on its shoulders that marks the breed with 
which we are familiar. The wild boar inhabits the 
thickets, and makes destructive incursions upon the 
cultivated grounds ; it is a bold and ferocious crea- 
ture. Jackals and hyenas are very abundant, and 
their nocturnal howls as they prowl for their prey 
are truly terrifying. These sounds are occasionally 
exchanged for the scream of the beautiful but san- 
guinary leopard, or the roar of the still more formi- 
dable lion. Numerous herds of gazelles and other 
elegant species of antelopes, afford food to these 
beasts of prey. Many of the animals, and in parti- 



THE RUINS OF SUSA. 151 

cular the birds, are the very same as those of 
southern Europe, and even the familiar songsters of 
our own native hedges are abundantly found there. 
Venomous reptiles are numerous, and many sorts of 
lizards, including the singular chameleon ; and various 
species of insects are annoying and destructive. The 
ravages of the locusts often produce lamentable con- 
sequences. 

About seven miles west of Dizful commence the 
ruins of Shus, the ancient Shushan, or Susa, the 
royal palace of the Persian kings, and the capital of 
the kingdom of Susiana. The word Shus in the 
Pehlivi language signifies " delightful ;" and is in- 
dicative of that pleasantness of situation and of cli- 
mate which made this city the favourite residence of 
Cyrus and his successors, in preference to the ancient 
and magnificent Babylon. The mouldering heaps 
that alone remain of its costly palaces extend over a 
space of twelve miles, reaching nearly to the banks 
of the Kerkhah, the ancient Choaspes. Over this 
immense tract are strewn mounds like those of Ba- 
bylon ; huge hillocks of earth and rubbish, covered 
with broken bricks and fragments of coloured tiles. 
The largest and most remarkable of the mounds are 
about two miles from the Kerkhah. The first, 
according to Kinneir, is a mile in circumference, and 
100 feet high ; the second is rather less in elevation, 
but of twice the extent. They are called by the 
inhabitants the Palace and the Castle, and resemble 
the pyramids of Babylon ; but are not wholly com- 
posed of brick, but of clay and pieces of tile, with 
irregular layers of brick and mortar, five or six feet 
thick, to serve as a prop to the mass. Large blocks of 



152 THE RIVER ULAI. 

marble, covered with sculptures, are often discovered 
by the wandering Arabs, when searching for treasure, 
which they believe to be hidden in the ruins. 

Major Eawlinson thus speaks of these remains : 
" The great mound of Susa forms the north-western 
extremity of a large irregular platform of mounds, 
which appear to have constituted the fort of the city, 
while the great tumulus represents the site of the 
inner citadel. By a rough calculation with the sex- 
tant, I found the height of the lower platform to be 
between eighty and ninety feet, and that of the great 
mound to be 165 feet ; the platform, which is square, 
I estimated to measure two miles and a half. The 
mound, which I paced, measured 1,100 yards round 
the base, and 850 round the summit. The slope is 
very steep ; so steep, indeed, as only to admit of 
ascent by two pathways." Major Kawlinson saw on 
the mound a slab, with an inscription of thirty-three 
lines in the arrow-headed character, and three Baby- 
lonian sepulchral urns, imbedded in the soil ; and in 
another place there was exposed to view, a few feet 
below the surface, a flooring of brickwork : while the 
summit of the mound was thickly strewn with broken 
pottery, glazed tiles, and kiln-burnt bricks. 

Sir Robert Ker Porter has given figures of some 
curious relics of antiquity found in the palace of 
Susa. One of these is interesting as containing, 
among other objects, specimens of compound ani- 
mals, reminding us of those symbolic forms seen in 
vision when this place was in its glory. Th& crm&^ 
too, appears on it as a sacred emblem, as weTEnow 
it was with the ancient Egyptians, a thousand years 
before the Christian era. 



THE TOMB OF DANIEL. 153 

At the foot of the highest pyramid is a small 
building, comparatively modern, inclosing an ancient 
tomb, believed to contain the dust of the prophet 
Daniel. There is nothing improbable in the tradi- 
tion, for here we know from inspired authority he 
was at the latter part of his life. And Josephus 
speaks of an edifice built by this venerable man at 
Susa, which was remaining in freshness and undi- 
minished beauty at the time he wrote. It was used 
as a burying-place for the Persian and Parthian 
monarchs ; and he adds, that in respect to the me- 
mory of the founder, the conservation of the edifice 
was always committed to a Jew. " The copies of 
Josephus that are now extant do indeed place this 
building in Ecbatana, in Media ; but St. Jerome, 
who gives us the same account of it word for word 
out of Josephus, and professeth so to do, placeth it 
in Susa, in Persia, which makes it plain that the 
copy of Josephus which he made use of had it so. 
And it is most likely to have been the true reading."* 
From the expression used by the Prophet, that he 
" did the king's business" at Shushan the palace, 
conjoined with what we know of his holding high 
and honourable office in the Babylonish state, it is 
not improbable that he was governor or viceroy over 
the province of Susiana. 

The deserted site of the once " delightful" city is 
now a gloomy wilderness, infested by lions, hyenas, 
and other ravenous beasts, that roam unchecked 
over its silent and crumbled walls. The prowling 
savage of the jungle has his residence in the halls 
that once were radiant with light and beauty, and his 

* Prideaux's Connexion, 



154 THE RIVER ULAI. 

hoarse roar echoes on the spot where once the laugh 
and song were heard. The traveller to whom we are 
indebted for our information concerning this ancient 
site was compelled by the dread of these animals to 
seek shelter for the night within the walls that en- 
compass the Tomb of Daniel. 

About ten miles to the north of the ruins of Susa 
rises a stream called the Abi-shapur ; it flows in a 
narrow but deep channel past the Tomb of the Pro- 
phet, and past the western foot of the great mound. 
This river is navigable from the ruins to its junction 
with the Pasitigris, at a considerable distance below 
the union of the Abzal and the Karun. The water 
is said to be heavy and unwholesome, but that of the 
Abzal and of the Kerkhah is in high estimation. 
This circumstance militates against the opinion of 
Major Rawlinson, that the Abi-shapur is the Ulai, or 
Eulseus ; for the water of this latter, as well as that 
of the Choaspes (Kerkhah), was so delicious that the 
Persian kings w^ould drink of none other. Milton 
alludes to this when he speaks of 

" Susa, by Choaspes' amber stream, 

The drink of none but kings/'* 

This, however, is a poetic licence ; for it does not 
appear that the water was limited to the royal use, 
but that the monarch confined himself to it. Hero- 
dotus tells us that wherever the king of Persia went, 
he w r as attended by a number of wagons, drawn by 
mules, to carry the water of these streams, which, 
having been first boiled, was deposited in silver 
vessels. iElian informs us, that Xerxes, during his 
invasion of Greece, came to a desert place, and was 

* Parad. Reg. ii. 






THE TWO-HORNED RAM. 155 

exceedingly thirsty ; but his baggage being at a con- 
siderable distance, proclamation was made that who- 
ever had any of the water of the Euleeus should pro- 
duce it for the use of the king. One man was found 
who possessed a small quantity, but it had been kept 
so long that it was quite offensive to the senses. 
Xerxes, however, drank it, and expressed his grati- 
tude to the donor, calling him his friend and pre- 
server. 






DANIEL VIII. 



The Chaldean monarchy, the lion empire of Nebu 
chadnezzar, was drawing near its end in the person 
of the degenerate Belshazzar ; when the " beloved" 
Daniel, who had already seen in vision the overthrow 
of that power by the growing Medes and Persians, 
and the ultimate displacement of the latter by the 
leopard dominion of Greece, was favoured with an- 
other revelation of the destinies and fortunes of these 
two monarchies. The prophet was at the city of 
Shushan, which must therefore at this time have been 
in the possession of the Babylonian power ; and he 
stood by the river Ulai. Suddenly he saw a vision 
on the bank of the river, a ram with two horns, both 
of them high, but one loftier than the other, though 
it had risen last. The ram was seen pushing west- 
ward, and northward, and southward, so vigorously 
that no beasts could stand before him ; but he did 
according to his own will, and became great. While 
the prophet considered this, a he-goat came rushing 
from the west so swiftly that he seemed not to touch 



156 THE RIVER ULAI. 

the ground, and this animal had but a single notable 
horn on his forehead. In the fury of his power the 
goat rushed upon the ram, broke his two horns, 
overthrew him, cast him down to the ground, and 
stamped upon him, nor could any deliver him. The 
he-goat on this waxed very great, but in the height 
of his strength his notable horn was broken, and was 
succeeded by four horns that rose up in its place. 
"And out of one of them came forth a little horn, 
which waxed exceedingly great toward the south, 
and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. 
And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven ; and 
it cast down some of the host and of the stars to 
the ground, and stamped upon them. Tea, he mag- 
nified himself even to the prince of the host, and by 
him the daily sacrifice was taken aw r ay, and the place 
of his sanctuary was cast down. And an host was 
given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of 
transgression, and it cast down the truth to the 
ground, and it practised and prospered." 

To an inquiry propounded by one attendant holy 
one of another, as to the duration of this iniquitous 
power, the answer was given in the following enigma. 
" Unto two thousand three hundred days ; then shall 
the sanctuary be cleansed ;" or, more literally, 
" Unto evening-morning 2,300 : then shall the sanc- 
tuary be justified." 

Such then was the vision which passed before the 
wondering senses of Daniel ; but as yet it conveyed 
no definite meaning to him. Presently, however, 
there stood before him a human form ; and a voice 
was heard arising from between the banks of the 
Ulai, saying, " Gabriel, make this man to under- 



SYMBOLIC ANIMALS. 



157 



stand the vision." The obedient angel then explained 
the meaning of the symbols. 

The two-horned ram signified the Medo-Persian 
kingdom, which had in a former vision been ex- 
pressed by a ravenous bear. In the present instance 
the symbols chosen are those which were accepted as 
national emblems of the respective kingdoms. That 
Persia was of old represented by a ram, there is 
abundant evidence. Ammianus Marcellinus states 
that the king of Persia wore a ram's head of gold, 
set with precious stones, instead of a diadem. The 
type of a ram is seen on ancient Persian coins, as in 
the accompanying example. And travellers have 




Coin of Pereia. 



observed that rams' heads, with horns of unequal 
height, are still to be seen sculptured on the pillars 
of Persepolis. 

The Persians, attaining to greater eminence than 
the Medes, who yet were the more ancient people, 
gave name to the empire, which speedily extended 
its dominion westward as far as Greece, northward as 
far as the Euxine and Caspian, and to the south as 
far as Egypt. 

As the ram was the acknowledged emblem of 
Persia, so was the goat of Macedon. For the first 
colony of that country being directed by the oracle 
to take a goat for a guide, followed a flock of these 



158 



THE RIVER ULAI. 



animals, and built a city where they stopped, which 
was called JEgece^ from JUgus, a goat, and the people 
themselves took the title of JEgeadw. Figures of a 
goat with a single horn are found on ancient Mace- 
donian monuments ; and at Persepolis the subjection 
of the Macedonians to the Persians, in the reign of 
Amyntas, b.c. 547, is represented by a man in Per- 
sian dress holding by the single horn an animal 
of this kind. A gem engraved in the Florentine 




Ancient Gem. 



collection, and here copied, represents the Persian 
symbol and the Macedonian united. This was pro- 
bably engraved after the conquest of Persia by 
Alexander. 

The notable horn between the eyes of the goat is 
explained to denote the first (or chief) king just 
named ; who with unexampled rapidity broke the 
power of Persia, bearing down all opposition, till it 
was utterly destroyed as an independent monarchy. 
But in the prime of life, and in the midst of his con- 
quests, Alexander was cut off, and his family in a few 
years became extinct ; and at length his great empire 
was divided among four of his principal captains, 
Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus. 

Respecting the remainder of this remarkable vision, 



FULFILMENT OF THE PKOPHECY. 



159 



the tyrannical " little horn " that arose out of one of 
the four, some diversity of judgment exists among the 
students of prophecy. Some apply it to Antiochus 
Epiphanes, others to Mohammedanism, others to the 
Papacy, (indubitably the " little horn " of the previous 
vision,) and yet others of a personal Antichrist still 
to arise. There is, doubtless, a family likeness in all 
the great blasphemers of God, and persecutors of his 
people, whicli renders many of the expressions in 
which one is described, more or less applicable to the 
others. This is not the place for discussing contro- 
verted interpretations of prophecy ; but we may 
modestly state our own judgment ; that Rome, first 
Pagan, and then Papal, is primarily intended. It 
was first introduced on the stage of prophecy, and 
came into contact with God's people, by the conquest 
of Macedon, and the agreement of its subsequent 
course with the prophecy will be seen by the follow- 
ing parallel scheme. 



And out of one of them came 
forth a little horn which waxed 
exceeding great toward the south, 
and toward the east, and toward 
the pleasant land. 

And it waxed great even to the 
host of heaven ; and 

it cast down some of the host 
and of the stars to the ground, 
and stamped upon them. 

Yea, he magnified himself even 
to the Prince of the Host, and 
by him the daily sacrifice was 
taken away, and the place of his 
sanctuary was cast down. 



From gaining footing in Ma- 
cedon came the Roman power, 
whose force, little at first, soon 
greatly increased, conquering 
Egypt, Asia, and Judea. 

It subjugated the Jewish priest- 
hood and government, 

persecuted the people of God, 
putting to death the apostles and 
ministers of the gospel ; 

crucified the Lord Jesus, 

and finally destroyed the city 
and temple. 



160 



THE RIVER ULAI. 



And an host was given him 
against the daily sacrifice, by 
reason of transgression, 

and it cast down the truth to the 
ground, 

and it practised and prospered. 



But he shall be broken without 
hand. 



The reason of the Jews being 
given up by God was their unpa- 
ralleled wickedness. 

After this Rome Pagan and 
Papal became the bitter opposer 
of God's truth, through many 
centuries, without any check to 
its wickedness. 



Yet the Lord shall consume him 
with the spirit of His mouth, and 
destroy him wfth the brightness 
of his coming. 

The duration of the vision was not thoroughly 
explained to the prophet at the time ; but the revela- 
tion of the " seventy weeks " of Daniel ix. seems 
evidently (see verses 21-23) intended to supply this 
explanation. By the application of this key, there- 
fore, we gather that 70 weeks or 490 years of the 
2,300, would expire at or near the death of the Lord 
Jesus, and therefore we have reason to hope that the 
cleansing (or "justifying ") of the sanctuary will not 
be long delayed, and that every blasphemous and 
tyrannical opponent of the Lord Jesus will soon be 
destroyed. 

Meanwhile let us be thankful that the great Head 
of the Church has not treated us as servants, " for 
the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth," but 
as friends ; for He has made us partakers of his 
counsels, and revealed to us the grand events, and 
many of the details, of his mysterious purposes. Very 
many things are plain in the prophecies ; others are 
fulfilling before our eyes, and will soon be cleared up 
by their accomplishment ; and if some few things 
yet remain impenetrably dark and inexplicable, it is 
not that we may slothfully turn away from the " sure 



Aw : 



ESTHEE I.— X. 

The beautiful city of Shushan was the scene of 
a series of most interesting and instructive events, 
which form the subject of the inspired Book of 
Esther. They show how truly Jehovah was a sanc- 
tuary to his people in the countries where they were 
scattered ; how his providence watches, overrules, 



J 



ULTIMATE RESULT. 161 

word of prophecy" as if it were a sealed book (for on 
the study of it a peculiar blessing is pronounced) ; 
but that we may learn humility, modesty, faith, and 
dependence upon the Holy Ghost who has indited the 
Word. The great result of the contest between the 
powers of light and darkness, between Christ and 
Satan, is revealed clearly and unambiguously : for 
a time evil seems to triumph ; but yet a little while 
" and all iniquity shall stop her mouth." The Lord 
Jesus will take to himself his great power, and reign ; 
and his oppressed and often persecuted saints, always 
dear to him, shall be avenged, and shall be exalted 
to share his throne ; every form of Antichristian error 
and wickedness shall be consumed out of the earth ; 
Satan himself shall be bound and shut up ; Israel 
shall be restored to earthly supremacy ; Jerusalem 
shall be the throne of the Lord ; the Gentiles shall 
be converted to him ; wars shall cease to the ends of 
the earth ; and peace and joy shall be universal. This 
glorious consummation we confidently expect on the 
authority of God himself; and for this may we wait 
with earnest hope, continually praying, " Thy king- 
dom come !" 



162 THE RIVER ULAI. 

and directs human affairs ; and how easily he can 
thwart the best-laid schemes of wicked men. The 
whole history is a comment upon the words of the 
wise king, — •" Pride goeth before destruction, and 
a haughty spirit before a fall." 

The Persian empire seems to have now attained 
the height of its glory, and the widest extent of its 
dominion ; for Ahasuerus, who is considered to be 
the same as Artaxerxes Longimanus, " reigned from 
Ethiopia even unto India, over an hundred and seven 
and twenty provinces." His firm establishment on 
the throne of this mighty empire, he celebrated by 
a festivity of extraordinary splendour, showing to all 
his princes, nobles, and servants, " the riches of his 
glorious kingdom, and the honour of his excellent 
majesty." These rejoicings lasted for a hundred and 
eighty days, or exactly half a year, and were wound 
up by a week of feasting for all the citizens of 
Shushan, great and small, " in the court of the garden 
of the king's palace." The company seems to have 
been entertained in a sort of pavilion or tent, com- 
posed of white, green, and blue hangings, fastened 
with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and 
pillars of marble ; the couches on which the guests 
reclined were of gold and silver ; and the pavement 
beneath was formed of red and blue, and white and 
black marble, arranged doubtless in those gorgeous 
Arabesque patterns which have been lately discovered 
in the pavements of Egypt and Assyria. The tables 
were furnished with vessels of gold, all of them 
diverse in their forms and ornaments, out of which 
the guests drank the choicest wines in an abundance 
proportioned to the royal state of the king. 



HAMAN AND ESTHER. 163 

The splendour of this magnificent palace agrees 
with what the Greeks have narrated concerning; it ; 
for they tell ns that it was built with white marble, 
and that its pillars were covered with gold and 
precious stones. The treasures of the kings of Persia 
were generally kept there, and Alexander the Great 
found in it 50,000 talents of gold, equal to about 274 
millions of pounds sterling, besides jewels of inesti- 
mable value, and an immense number of gold and 
silver vessels. 

It was at this royal feast that the incident occurred 
which resulted in the marriage of the king with 
Esther, a Jewish maiden of great beauty and virtue ; 
through whose advancement her people, who were 
still in great numbers in the Persian dominions, were 
preserved from entire extirpation. The insolence of 
Hainan, a worthless favourite of the king — his rage at 
the refusal of Mordecai the Jew to pay court to him — ■ 
his diabolical plot to destroy the whole Jewish race — 
his ridiculous vanity, and his sudden fall, are recorded 
with inimitable simplicity in the sacred narrative ; 
but the story is too long for us to do more than refer 
to it. The vile Amalekite proved the truth of the 
Psalmist's words ; — " He made a pit and digged it, 
and is fallen into the ditch which he made ; his 
mischief shall return upon his own head ; and his 
violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate." 

The plot which had been laid for the captive Jews 
was used by God to advance their comfort and consi- 
deration. The pious Mordecai was exalted to fill the 
place which Haman had dishonoured ; the edict 
commanding the massacre of the Jews was counter- 
vailed by another, permitting them to defend them- 



164 THE RIVER ULAI. 

selves; (for, by the absurd custom of the Medes and Per- 
sians, no law once issued could be absolutely revoked ;) 
and as the favour of the king was plainly seen in the 
latter document, and the power of Mordecai was now 
great, the Hebrews w^ere almost everywhere counte- 
nanced by the authorities, and those who did rise 
against them were overcome and slain. 

Meanwhile, neither the queen nor the king's chief 
minister forgot in prosperity that they were the cove- 
nant people of God ; they neither abused the royal 
favour, nor became ashamed of their religion, nor 
forgot their connexion with their captive brethren ; 
but used their greatness for the welfare and peace of 
their people, and doubtless for the spread of true 
religion. It is not without reason supposed that the 
missions of Ezra and Nehemiah to the land of their 
fathers, the favourable edicts granted to them by this 
monarch for the rebuilding of desolated Jerusalem, 
and his kindly permission and encouragement to the 
Jews yet remaining in his dominions to return from 
their captivity, were mainly owing under God, first 
to the favour which Esther obtained in the king's 
eyes, and afterwards to the good offices of Mordecai. 



77 



V. 

THE EIVEE JORDAN. 



The Jordan. — Mountain Ranges — The Ghor — Sources — Paneas — 
Phiala — Tel-el-Kady — Hasbeyah — Waters of Merom — Lotus Lily 
— Lake of Gennesaret — Lower Jordan — Rapids — Windings — Sce- 
nery — Trees and Flowers — Double Valley — Dead Sea — Its Ancient 
Condition — Depression — Pillar of Salt — Scene of Desolation — 
Apples of Sodom — Geological Character. 

The Dividing of the Waters. — The Wilderness Sojourn — The 
Plains of Moab — The Spies — The Passage — The Twelve Stones- 
Death of the Believer. 

The Baptism of our Lord. — Bethabara — Hope deferred — The Bap- 
tist — Jesus baptized — The Descent of the Holy Ghost — The Voice 
* of the Father — The Scene of the Baptism — The Pilgrims. 

The Fords of Jordan. — The Judges — Ehud and Eglon — Gideon — 
The Three Hundred — Faithfulness of Jehovah — Jephthah — Shib- 
boleth. 

The Translation of Elijah. — Testimony — Apostasy — Elisha's Re- 
quest — The Chariot — The Rapture — The Mantle— The Change of 
the Quick. 

Naaman the Syrian. — Happiness not dependent on Circumstances — 
The Leper — The little Maid— The Cleansing — The Fountain for 
Sin. 

The Swimming Iron. — The Sons of the Prophets — The Tamarisk 
Tree — The Axe-head — The Tenderness of God. 

Cjesarea Philippi. — Peter's Confession — Interesting Monument. 

Dan.— Early Idolatry— The Golden Calf— Fountain of Tel-el-Kady 
— Tortoise — Buffalo. 

The rivers which we have hitherto noticed would, 
for the most part, connect themselves in the mind of 



166 THE RIVER JORDAH. 

an Israelite with ideas of hostile military power, 
blasphemous enmity against Jehovah, and the cap- 
tivity of his people. We come now to wander by the 
banks of those streams that watered the sacred soil 
of Israel, diffusing fertility and gladness through- 
out that favoured country, which was described as 
" a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains 
and depths that spring out of valleys and hills." # 
The most eminent of these, not less for its size than 
for the interesting events with which its history is 
connected, is the Jordan. 

The mountain ridges of Palestine run in lines 
nearly parallel with its Mediterranean shore. The 
lofty range of Lebanon, overlooking from its snowy 
summit the Great Sea on the one hand and the 
Syrian desert on the other, gradually merges into 
the mountains of Galilee and of Samaria, and the 
hill country of Judea. Over against this chain to 
the eastward there rises another, parallel with it, and 
nearly agreeing with it in the varied elevation of its 
different portions. Antilibanus (" Lebanon toward 
the sun-rising,") is continued in Mount Hermon, 
with its lofty peak, of ancient renown, whence the 
mountains of Bashan gradually sink till they are lost 
in the plains that border the lake of Gennesaret. 
Thence beyond the river Jarmuk they again begin 
to rise in rugged peaks ; and the hills of Gilead and 
of the land of Moab stretch from north to south, until 
the rocky belt of Mount Seir rears its frowning 
masses of stone in a thousand strange forms, divided 
by horrid yawning chasms, in the most dreary deso- 

* Deut. viii. 7. 



THE GHOR PANEAS. 167 

lation, and forms a fit gateway to the desert of 
burning sand that lies beyond. 

Between these mountain ranges lies the Ghor, or 
Valley of the Jordan, which, from the sources of that 
river to the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, 
extends through a length of about one hundred and 
seventy miles. Its breadth is irregular : at its head 
it is not more than a few miles from the summit of 
one ridge to that of the opposite ; and the average 
width, to a distance considerably below the Lake of 
Gennesaret, may be considered as not above ten 
miles ; but as the hills stretch to the southward, they 
still diverge from each other, until they again 
approach, to inclose, as with walls of precipitous 
rock, the Dead Sea. 

" The Jordan is entitled to take its place as the 
chief of Syrian rivers, and perhaps this is distinction 
enough for it ; but besides this, it may be said, that 
for a line of nearly three thousand miles along the 
coast of Africa and of Syria, no one stream except 
the Nile contributes so large a volume of water to 
the Mediterranean as the Jordan contributes to the 
Dead Sea ; and that all Arabia has not one river 
comparable to it. . . . But the dignity of the Jordan 
arises from other circumstances than the volume of 
its waters or the extent of its course." * 

The principal source of this river has been from very 
ancient times considered to be at Paneas, or Csesarea 
Philippi, where it rises in a very romantic manner. 
Josephus thus describes it : — "At Panium . . . there 
is a mountain that is elevated to a vast height : and 
in its side at the bottom a dark cavern opens ; within 

* Dr. Kitto's Palestine, vol. ii. p. 153. 



168 



THE KIVER JORDAN. 



which there is a horrible gulf, descending abruptly 
to a great depth. It contains a mighty quantity of 
water, which is quite still and unmoved ; and when 
any one attempts to sound its depth, no length of 
cord is found sufficient to reach the bottom. Now 
the fountains of Jordan rise at the roots of this 
cavity, and, as some think, this is the utmoat origin 
of Jordan." * 




PlPlpf 



Sourc« of the Jordan. 



This cave has been described by modern travellers, 
and in particular by Burckhardt. Over its mouth 
the perpendicular face of the rock has been cut into 
niches with pillars for the reception of statues, the 



* Bell. Jud. I. xxi. 3. 



SOURCES OF THE JORDAN. 169 

basal part of one being still to be seen. Inscriptions, 
now nearly illegible, were cut in the rock near these 
recesses. The modern village of Baneas contains 
only about a hundred and fifty houses ; but heaps of 
stones and fragments of pillars lie around, covering 
an extensive space, on which stood the royal city 
which bore the name of the Tetrarch of Trachonitis. 

In another passage Josephus connects the water 
which flows from this cave with that of a perfectly 
circular lake, about fifteen miles distant, called, from 
its bowl-like form, Phiala : for, as he asserts, some 
chaff having been thrown into the lake by Philip, 
emerged from beneath the cave at Paneas ; whence 
it was concluded that a subterranean passage existed 
between the two. 

Captains Irby and Mangles seem to have disco- 
vered this interesting place. Having entered a rich 
little plain at the southern foot of Mount Hermon, 
they found a rivulet which, flowing through the 
plain, rushes picturesquely through a deep chasm, 
and joins the Jordan at Baneas. Ascending a little 
higher, they saw^ a very singular lake, about a mile in 
circumference, apparently perfectly circular, and 
surrounded on all sides by sloping hills richly wooded. 
A remarkable circumstance was, that they could per- 
ceive no supply or discharge of its waters, which 
appeared perfectly still, though clear and limpid : a 
great many wild fowl were swimming on it.* 

Another source of the Jordan is found about three 
miles to the west of Baneas, at a place called Tel-el- 
Kady, which is believed to be the site of the ancient 
Dan or Laish, the northern boundary of the land. It 

* Irby a R d Mang. Trav. pp. 286—289. 

8 



170 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

unites with the other stream five or six miles below 
the emergence of the latter from the cave. 

Yet a fourth stream, the Hasbeyah, presents a 
claim to be considered as the source of this river, and 
one which, but for a prescriptive right of the former, 
must be acknowledged as the best of all. It rises 
more than twenty miles farther to the north-east, 
on the northern side of Hermon, around whose base 
it pours a considerable stream, being, at the point 
where it runs by Paneas, as broad, as deep, and as 
rapid as the Jordan itself at Jericho. Whether it 
unites its waters with those of the former streams, or 
falls into the lake Houle by its own distinct channel, 
are points not yet quite ascertained. 

The plain through which these rivers flow is most 
fertile. Numerous plantations of mulberry-trees 
adorn the banks, and the surrounding hills are 
covered with groves of oak. The richest pasture 
covers the whole plain, except where it is cultivated ; 
and cattle are driven by the Arab tribes from consi- 
derable distances to feed on its luxuriance. The 
labour of the plough, though employed but to a 
limited extent, is rewarded by crops of wheat and 
other corn of excellent quality and in rich abun- 
dance. Thistles, those sure tokens of a vigorous soil, 
grow to so gigantic a size, as to reach up to the 
height of a horse's back, to the annoyance of his 
rider ; and that curious plant, the mandrake, with 
its purple blossoms and fragrant apple-like fruit, is 
abundant in this region. 

Nearly in the midst of this beautiful plain, the 
waters of the several streams we have noticed dilate 
into a lake of considerable extent. It is known in 



THE WATERS OF MEROM. 



m 



early Hebrew history as the waters of Merom ; at the 
time of Boman dominion it had received the name 
of Samochonites ; but in modern times, at least since 
the Crusades, it has borne the Arab appellation of 
Bahr-el-Houl&. 




The Mandrake. 



After the winter rains this lake forms a beautiful 
sheet of water, eleven or twelve miles long by about 
four broad ; but in summer the northern half becomes 
a mere morass, covered with rushes, through which 



172 



THE RIVEB JORDAN. 



several streams wind their silver courses. Among 
these grow also abundantly the reeds which are used 
in the East for pens, as well as others of stouter make, 
which serve for lances and arrows. On the surface 
float the broad leaves and beautiful white flowers of 
the Lotus-lily, the seeds of which, as well as the large 




The Lotus Lily. 



tuberous roots, are frequently roasted in hot ashes 
and eaten. The elegant blossoms rise out of the 
water at sunrise, and expand themselves to the beam, 
but on the approach of night close their corollas, and 
retire beneath the surface. They are no less fragrant 
than beautiful. Among these flowers multitudes of 
aquatic fowl of various species repose unmolested, 
and the reedy shores and shallows conceal thousands 
of wading-birds. 



THE LAKE OF GENNESARET. 173 

The Jordan, issuing from the Waters of Merom, 
flows down through a narrow rocky channel with 
considerable rapidity, as a noisy torrent. Its course 
is almost concealed by the groves of plane-trees and 
nebeks that line its banks, and especially by the 
luxuriant oleanders that cluster thickly in every part, 
flushing the scene through the spring and early 
summer with, the hue of their gorgeous flowers, like 
a vast bed of roses. After having brawled through 
its stony channel for about ten miles, it enters that 
wide and beautiful lake, the name of which will 
always be associated with pleasant and holy reminis- 
cences to the Christian, the Lake of Gennesaret, the 
Sea of Tiberias. 

This expanse of water is about twelve or fifteen 
miles in length, and about half as broad. Its surface 
is 328 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, and 
its depth is about 350 fathoms. Its picturesque 
appearance is well described by many travellers ; but 
by none more agreeably than by Dr. Clarke, who 
viewed it from the most favourable point, the hill 
known as the Mount of Beatitudes. " From this 
point," he observes, " a view was presented, which, 
for its grandeur, independently of the interest excited 
by the different objects contained in it, has nothing 
equal to it in the Holy Land. 

" From this situation we perceived that the plain 
over which we had been so long riding [from the 
west] was itself very elevated. Far beneath appeared 
other plains, one lower than the other, in a regular 
gradation, reaching eastward, as far as the surface of 
the Sea of Tiberias. This immense lake, almost 
equal, in the grandeur of its appearance, to that of 



174: THE RIVER JORDAJST. 

Geneva, spreads its waters over all the lower territory. 
Its eastern shores exhibit a sublime scene of moun- 
tains towards the north and south, and they seem 
to close in at either extremity, both towards Cho- 
razin, where the Jordan enters, and the Anion or 
Campus Magnus, through which this river flows into 
the Dead Sea. The cultivated plains reaching to its 
borders, which we beheld at an amazing depth below 
our view, resembled, by the different hues their 
various produce presented, the motley pattern of 
a vast carpet. To the north appeared many snowy 
summits, towering beyond a series of intervening 
mountains. We considered them as the summits of 
Libanus ; but the Arabs belonging to our caravan 
called the principal eminence Jebel-el-Sieh. The 
summit was so lofty that the snow entirely covered 
the upper part of it, investing all the higher part 
with that perfect white and smooth velvet-like appear- 
ance, which snow only exhibits when it is very 
deep." * 

Dr. Kitto thus speaks of the minuter features of 
this interesting scene : — 

"The feathered tribes seem to make the lake a 
favourite resort. Multitudes of song-birds harbour 
in the northernmost groves, and their innumerable 
happy voices mingle with the rush of waters, where 
the river hastens to the lake. The margin and sur- 
face of the lake itself presents large flocks of storks, 
wild-ducks, and diving-birds ; pelicans are not want- 
ing ; while here and there vultures are assiduously 
engaged with their carrion-prey ; or eagles, heavily 
flapping their broad wings, rise to their aeries in the 

* Clarke's Travels, part ii. 



THE LAKE OF GENNESAKET. 175 

mountains. But when the heat of the summer sun 
— intensely concentrated on the borders of this deep 
basin — has absorbed all the moisture which the earth 
contained, and utterly dried up the green herbage 
which gave a cheerful aspect to the scene, the effect 
of the whole, in the entire absence of trees, is very 
different, — more dull, heavy, sad, but not less, per- 
haps, in unison with the general tone of feeling with 
which the Christian pilgrim is prepared to regard 
this memorable lake. Its surface is usually in a 
state of dead calm ; and, in the universal stillness, 
the gentle plash of its water upon the pebbles of the 
shore is distinctly heard, and is, indeed, almost the 
only sound that strikes the ear. Not a single boat 
of any kind is seen upon the lake ; and, now that 
the Arab has removed his tents to the higher country, 
the eye may wander around its borders in vain, seek- 
ing for any other signs of habitation than the mean 
town of Tabaria, and one or two miserable villages. 
The saddened traveller may gaze for hours over the 
scene without observing a single human being, or 
indeed any living creature, save the large water-fowl, 
whose sole presence tends rather to increase than 
to diminish the desolation of the view." * 

The current of the Jordan through the midst of 
the lake is distinct, and easily observed by the smooth 
flowing of its waters, while the rest of the surface is 
rippled with the breeze. At the southern extremity, 
it emerges in a single stream, which in spring is 
about forty feet across ; and thence it flows through 
the Ghor, or valley to which it gives its own name, 

* Phys. Hist, of Palestine, vol. ii. p. 165. 



176 THE EIVER JORDAN. 

until its course is finally lost in the leaden waters of 
the Dead Sea. 

Until the late American expedition, our acquaint- 
ance with this sacred river was almost confined to a 
few points at which it is fordable. That expedition 
descended the river in two metallic boats, and, though 
with much labour and often in imminent peril, suc- 
ceeded in reaching the Dead Sea. The stream is full 
of rapids and appalling descents, particularly in the 
upper part of its eourse ; no fewer than twenty-seven 
of these occurring, of threatening depth and force, 
besides a great number of less magnitude. Near the 
debouchure of the Jarmuk there is a cascade of 
eleven feet in height, below which are two fierce 
rapids, each 150 yards in length, bristling with black 
rocks, whose points rise above the foaming surface. 
Sunken and half-submerged rocks are very numerous 
throughout great part of the course; and in some 
parts there are a number of small islets. The course 
of the river is exceedingly tortuous, forming an un- 
ending series of serpentine curves ; hence, though 
the Dead Sea is only about sixty miles distant from 
the Lake of Gennesaret, the Jordan traverses, in that 
distance, a course of at least two hundred miles. 
Near the mouth of the Jabbok, there is a sudden 
break-down in the bed of the Jordan, which appears 
to be connected with the depression of the bottom of 
the Dead Sea. 

In many parts the scenery on the river is very pic- 
turesque : sometimes the turbid torrent madly rushes 
between perpendicular cliffs, at others it shoots 
round the base of a mountain, and then again flows 
between low banks, covered with shrubs, and trees, 



TREES AND FLOWERS. 177 

and fragrant flowers. Here and there a brawling 
rivulet pours its tiny addition of crystal water into 
the discoloured current of Jordan, and one or two 
rivers of more pretension add their tribute, drained 
from the sides of the receding Wadys. 

The trees that throw their branches over the Jor- 
dan's margin are not usually of large size ; they are 
principally the willow, the fern-like elegant tamarisk, 
and the gharrab, or honey-tree, a plant resembling 
the olive, which is said to distil from its poplar-like 
leaves a sweet fluid, of the taste and consistence of 
honey, which may have been the honey in the wood 
that " dropped," of which Jonathan ate after the 
slaughter of the Philistines. The oleander is abun- 
dant, as it is upon all the streams of Palestine ; its 
pale crimson flow^ers contrast finely with the white 
fringed blossoms of the asphodel. 

In some places where the banks slope gradually 
up to the higher terraced level, the ground is covered 
with a sort of wild oats, thin and worthless, yet pre- 
senting somewhat of beauty in its silvery waves, as 
the breeze plays over it ; and revealing, as the gusts, 
sweeping down the hills, bend it low, a flush of san- 
guine crimson from the anemones that cover the 
surface beneath in thick and matted profusion. 
Patches of yellow daisy-like flowers, or of wild mus- 
tard, look " like little golden islands in an incar- 
nadined ocean ;" and several species of thistle, of 
gigantic size, spread a purple glow over the sides of 
the otherwise naked hills. 

The Ghor itself is about six miles wide ; but in the 
lower part, the retiring of the mountains on each 
side gives it a breadth of ten or twelve, enclosing on 

8* 



178 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

the one side the Plains of Moab, and on the other 
the Plains of Jericho. The greater part of this level 
is little better than a parched and barren desert, 
though the courses of the numerous rivulets which 
furrow it on both sides relieve the general sterility 
with many patches of verdure. But there is a lower 
valley, about three quarters of a mile wide, through 
the midst of which the river flows. The level of this 
vale is about forty feet lower than that of the general 
plain, and is covered with luxuriant vegetation, reeds 
and canes forming in many places an impenetrable 
brake, intermingled with tamarisks and willows, and 
other trees. 

The close and matted vegetation of this lower 
valley affords a shelter for wild beasts and other ani- 
mals, which lodge here in security from the assaults 
of man. But the winter rains, and the melting of 
the mountain snows in spring, fill the bed of Jordan ; 
and his swollen waters, overflowing the ordinary 
banks, inundate this verdant tract, and drive the 
lurking tenants into the open plains above. The 
rage and ferocity of the more powerful beasts of prey, 
that formerly were found here, when thus dislodged 
from their retreat, are more than once alluded to by 
the prophet Jeremiah. " Behold, he shall come up 
like a lion from the swelling of Jordan !" * 

The bed of the river itself varies both in depth and 
width, in different places ; sometimes being not more 
than twenty yards in breadth, at others upwards of 
a hundred ; in some places forming a deep and rapid 
current, and in others easily fordable. The season, 
as already intimated, greatly affects the volume of 
its waters. 

* Jer. xlix. 19 ; 1. 44. 



WADY AEABAH. 179 

For the last few miles, the Jordan runs between 
banks of sand, and pours a considerable quantity of 
water into the Dead Sea. At the embouchure, it is 
about a hundred yards wide, and is deep and rapid. 
Yet, so dense are the saline waters of that awful lake, 
that the current of the river seems unable to enter 
among them, but ceases to be perceived at once at 
the very point of contact. 

We shall, then, consider the Jordan as terminating 
here ; for out of this mysterious sea no stream 
emerges. Yet there can be scarcely a doubt that in 
ancient times, before the terrible destruction of 
Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone out 
of heaven, the area now occupied by these baleful 
waters was a lovely and fertile plain, through the 
length of which the Jordan flowed, well watering it 
everywhere. The river must then have had an out- 
let ; and probably flowed through the valley called 
the Wady Arabah, which extends from the southern 
extremity of the Dead Sea to the Elanitic Gulf, or 
eastern arm of the Red Sea. That no egress of 
waters can now take place in that direction is mani- 
fest, not only from the great depression of the surface 
of the lake, which is 1,300 feet fcelow that of 
the Mediterranean, but also because a wall of rock 
now extends quite across the valley, about seven 
miles from its commencement. Both the depression 
of the plain, however, and the elevation of this ridge, 
may have been simultaneous results of the awful 
convulsion of nature in which the guilty cities were 
overwhelmed. 

That the whole tract which is now covered by the 
Dead Sea has been depressed, the late researches of 



180 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

the American Exploring Expedition have abundantly 
proved. Referring to the words of the sacred nar- 
rative, that when Abraham looked toward all the 
land of the plain, the smoke of the country went up 
as the smoke of a furnace, Lieutenant Lynch infers 
that the entire chasm was a plain sunk and over- 
whelmed by the wrath of God ; and this inference he 
considers as warranted by the extraordinary character 
of the soundings obtained. The bottom of the Dead 
Sea consists of two submerged plains, an elevated 
and a depressed one. The former is the roundish 
bay which forms the southern extremity, separated 
from the rest of the sea by a promontory, which runs 
nearly all across ; the bottom in this part is pretty 
evenly about twelve or fifteen feet below the surface. 
To this small bay Professor Robinson would limit 
the calamity which befel the guilty plain. The 
other area, the great body of the sea, has a nearly 
uniform depth of a thousand feet, w T hile through its 
centre, in a line corresponding with the course of the 
Jordan, there runs a ravine, cleaving the bottom to 
the depth of two hundred feet more. 

The inference, then, is obvious, that once this level 
area formed tMfe beauteous and fertile plain of Sodom, 
well watered everywhere by the Jordan, (and pro- 
bably many affluent streams,) whose flood was poured 
along the ravine or deep bed running through it ; 
and that the whole plain, after having had its bitu- 
minous crust devoured by " fire and brimstone out 
of heaven," was made to sink down suddenly a thou- 
sand feet, not in fragments, but in a mass, with the 
river-bed still cutting it, as an indelible memorial of 
the truth of the Word of God. The great and deep 



THE PILLAR OF SALT. 181 

gulf thus formed then constituted a reservoir, into 
which the Jordan's waters were gradually poured, 
until they attained the level which they now possess. 

On the western side of the southern bay or shallow 
lake, the American party discovered an object which 
at any place would have been considered a curiosity, 
but which in that locality, and considering the story 
of Lot's wife, cannot but be regarded with intense 
interest. On the side of the very remarkable isolated 
mountain which still bears the name of Usdum 
(Sodom), stands a pillar of salt ! But we will give 
the description of this in the words of the discoverer : — 

" To our astonishment, we saw on the eastern side 
of Usdum, one third the distance from its north 
extreme, a lofty round pillar, standing apparently 
detached from the general mass, at the head of a 
deep, narrow, and abrupt chasm. We immediately 
pulled in for the shore, and Dr. Anderson and I went 
up and examined it. The beach was a soft, slimy 
mud encrusted with salt, and, a short distance from 
the water, covered with saline fragments and flakes of 
bitumen. We found the pillar to be of solid salt, 
capped with carbonate of lime, cylindrical in front, 
and pyramidal behind. The upper or rounded part 
is about forty feet high, resting on a kind of oval 
pedestal, from forty to sixty feet above the level of 
the sea. It slightly decreases in size upwards, 
crumbles at the top, and is one entire mass of 
crystallization. A prop or cross buttress connects it 
with the mountain behind, and the whole is covered 
with debris of a light stone-colour. Its peculiar 
shape is doubtless attributable to the action of the 
winter rains. The Arabs had told us in vague terms 



182 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

that there was to be found a pillar somewhere upon 
the shores of the sea ; but their statements in all 
other respects had proved so unsatisfactory that we 
could place no reliance upon them."* 

The same writer describes, in a graphic manner, 
the awfully interesting vicinity of this pillar of salt : — 

" It was indeed a scene of unmitigated desolation. 
On one side, rugged and worn, was the salt mountain 
of Usdum, with its conspicuous pillar, which reminded 
us at least of the catastrophe of the plain ; on the 
other were the lofty and barren cliffs of Moab, in 
one of the caves of which the fugitive Lot found 
shelter. To the south was an extensive flat intersected 
by sluggish drains, with the high hills of Edom semi- 
girdling the salt plain where the Israelites repeatedly 
overthrew their enemies ; and to the north was the 
calm and motionless sea, curtained with a purple 
mist, while many fathoms deep in the slimy mud 
beneath it lay embedded the ruins of the ill-fated 
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The glare of light 
was blinding to the eye, and the atmosphere difficult 
of respiration. No bird fanned with its wing the 
attenuated air, through which the sun poured his 
scorching rays upon the mysterious element on which 
we floated, and which alone, of all the works of its 
Maker, contains no living thing within it."f 

Among the most interesting plants of this region, 
are those which are considered to have furnished the 
description given by Josephus and other ancient 
writers of the "Apples of Sodom." The Jewish 
historian, after having mentioned the destruction of 
the cities of the plain, and the traces of the burning 

* Jordan and the Dead Sea, p. 307. t Ibid. p. 311. 



APPLE OF SODOM. 



133 



vengeance that remained in his day, goes on to speak 
of their ashes being perpetuated in fruits, which 
have an appearance as if fit to be eaten, but which, 
on being plucked, dissolve in the hand into smoke 
and ashes.* 

Several plants indeed have been at different 
times supposed to be identical with those thus de- 
scribed ; but the best claims are presented by the 
Mad apple {Solarium melongenoi) and the Osher 
(Asclepias procera). The former is a shrub from three 




Apple of Sodom. 



to five feet in height, bearing round yellowish berries 
about an inch and a half in diameter. They are 
called LeimunLiit by the Arabs, who have a tradition 
that " the plant formerly bore excellent limes, but 



* Bell. Jud. IV.viii. 4. 



184 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

for the wickedness of the people of the plain, it was 
cursed by Lot, and doomed to bear the bitter fruit 
which it now yields." It is true they are not always 
filled with dust, but only when the fruit is attacked 
by an insect, (a species of saw fly, TentJiredo^) which 
turns the whole interior into dust, leaving the skin 
only entire, and of a beautiful colour. 

The osher, however, seems better to coincide with 
the description of Josephus. Professor Robinson 
thus speaks of it : — " One of the first objects which 
attracted our notice on arriving at ' Ain Jidy (Engedi) 
was a tree with singular fruit . . . the ^ osher of the 
Arabs . . . which is found in abundance in Upper 
Egypt and Nubia, and also in Arabia Felix ; but it 
seems to be confined in Palestine to the borders of 
the Dead Sea. We saw here [at 'Ain Jidy] several 
trees of the kind, the trunks of which were six or 
eight inches in diameter, and the whole height from 
ten to fifteen feet. It has a greyish cork-like bark, 
with long oval leaves, . . . and when its leaves and 
flowers are broken off, it discharges copiously a milky 
fluid. The fruit greatly resembles externally a large 
smooth apple or orange, hanging in clusters of three 
or four together, and when ripe is of a yellow colour. 
It was now fair and delicious to the eye, and soft to 
the touch, but on being pressed or struck it explodes 
with a puff, like a bladder or puff-ball, leaving in the 
hand only the shreds of the thin rind, and a few 
fibres. It is, indeed, chiefly filled with air, like a 
bladder, which gives it the round form, while in the 
centre a small slender pod runs through it from the 
stem, and is connected by thin filaments with the 
rind. The pod contains a small quantity of fine silk 



GEOLOGICAL CHARACTER. 185 

with seeds, precisely like the pod of the silk-weed, 
(Asclepias Syriaca,) though very much smaller. The 
Arabs collect the silk, and twist it into matches 
for their guns, preferring it to the common match, 
because it requires no sulphur to render it com- 
bustible." 

In the account of Josephus, the Professor goes on 
to observe, " there is nothing, after a due allowance 
for the marvellous in all popular reports, which does 
not apply almost literally to the fruit of the ^osher 
as we saw it. It must be plucked and handled with 
great care, in order to preserve it from bursting. We 
attempted to carry some of the boughs and fruit 
with us to Jerusalem, but without success."* 

The geological character of this whole region is 
somewhat singular. Dr. Wilson considers the great 
crevasse which forms the valley of the Jordan, the 
Dead Sea, and the Wady Arabah, to have been pro- 
duced by the upheaving of basalt, which appears in 
many places around the Lake of Tiberias, and which 
is seen here and there along the line nearly to the 
source of the Jordan at Hasbeya. In connexion 
with this remarkable formation he notices the ex- 
istence of thermal springs, particularly at the bitu- 
minous wells near Hasbeya, along the shores of the 
Lake of Tiberias, on the banks of the Jarmuk, and 
in the Wady Zerka Main ; and also of layers, cakes, 
and masses of bitumen and salt, especially along the 
shores of the Dead Sea. 

Snch then are the physical characters of this 
ancient river ; and we now proceed to glance at some 
of those incidents with which it has been associated, 

* Bibl. Res. vol. ii. p. 235. 



186 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

and which have conferred upon it an interest superior 
to that which attaches to any other stream (with one 
exception) on the face of the globe. 




JOSHUA in. rv. 

The children of Israel had wandered in the Arabian 
desert, " that great and terrible wilderness, 55 through 
the dreary period of forty years ; and now at length 
the time was come when they were to go in to 
possess the good land which Jehovah had sworn to 
give them. Moses their devoted leader was dead ; 
Aaron the high-priest was dead also ; and of all the 
six hundred thousand fighting men that had come 
out of Egypt, there # now remained not one except 
Caleb and Joshua, the faithful spies who thirty-eight 
years before had given a good report of the land 
which they had then searched out. The mission of 
Moses, the mediator and lawgiver in the wilderness- 
wandering, was accomplished, and he had passed 
from the scene ; and the command of the host now 
devolved upon Joshua, who, as the typical captain of 
their salvation, was appointed to lead them into pos- 
session of the promised inheritance, to conquest and 
to rest. 

The thousands of Israel were encamped in the 
Plains of Moab. In their front rolled the Jordan, 
like a sea ; for the winter rains had fallen, and his 
full tide had overflowed his banks, and filled the 
whole breadth of the lower valley. Beyond the 
foaming tide was spread the fertile plain of Jericho, 
covered with its waving fields of corn, now fully 



PLAINS OF MOAJ3. 187 

ripe, and inviting the sickle ; and in the midst of it, 
full in the sight of the host, embosomed in its 
gardens and groves of balsam-trees, and date-palms, 
and many other valued plants, rose the lofty walls 
of the fair " city of palm-trees," the stately Jericho. 
The level tract on which the Hebrew camp was 
pitched had not at this time its wonted barrenness ; 
for the genial spring had covered its sands with 
verdure, and adorned it with a thousand flowers. 
Behind, girding in the plains of Shittim as with a 
rampart, stretched along the horizon the mountains 
of Abarim, casting their morning shadows even to 
the camp ; and, conspicuous among them, the lofty 
Pisgah reared its rugged peak, whence, only a little 
while before, the beautiful sight of " Israel abiding in 
their tents" had evoked blessings instead of curses 
from the unwilling mouth of the Mesopotamian 
prophet ; and where, still more recently, the venera- 
ble lawgiver had been privileged with a prospect of 
the goodly land, and had then died in the arms of 
God.* 

Joshua had sent out two spies to take a survey of 
the frontier city, and to report its condition to him. 
They had now returned, and had informed him of 
their adventures ; of the terror which had struck 
deep into the failing hearts of the Canaanites on the 
approach of Israel ; of the renown which the late 
interpositions of Divine power had procured for the 
name of Jehovah ; of the faith of Rahab, the harlot 

* " So Moses, the Servant of the Lord, died there in the land of 
Moab, according to the Word of the Lord." Deut. xxxiv. 5. In the 
Hebrew, it is " at the mouth of the Lord ;" which the Rabbins render, 
" by the kiss of the Lord." 



188 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

who had afforded them concealment from the wrath 
of the king ; of their solemn covenant to spare her 
life in the coming desolation ; and of the scarlet line 
to be hung out of the window, the significant seal 
and token of that covenant of salvation. These and 
other things the spies had reported to their com- 
mander, to the confirmation of his faith, and the 
increase of his hope in God. 

And now the glorious day was come when, by a 
stupendous miracle, Jehovah had determined to 
show how able He was to remove every obstacle in 
the way of his people,* and to subdue every enemy 
before their face. By his appointment the host, 
amounting probably to two millions and a-half of 
persons, (about the same number as had crossed the 
Red Sea on foot,) had removed to the banks of the 
river three days before, and now in marching array 
awaited the signal to cross the stream. At any time 
the passage of the river by such a multitude, with 
their women and children, their flocks and herds, 
and all their baggage, would have presented for- 
midable difficulties ; but now the channel was filled 
with a deep and impetuous torrent, which overflowed 
its banks and spread widely on each side, probably 
extending nearly a mile in width ; while in the very 
sight of the scene were the Oanaanitish hosts, who 
might be expected to pour out from their gates, and 
exterminate the invading multitude before they 
could reach the shore. Yet these difficulties were 
nothing to Almighty power, and only served to 
heighten the effect of the stupendous miracle about 
to be wrought. 

By the command of Jehovah, the priests, bearing 



PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN. 189 

the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred symbol of the 
Divine presence, marched more than half a mile in 
the front of the people, who were forbidden to come 
any nearer to it. Thus it was manifest that Jehovah 
needed not protection from Israel, but was their 
guard and guide, since the unarmed priests feared 
not to separate themselves from the host, and to 
venture with the Ark into the river in the face of their 
enemies. And thus the army, standing aloof, had a 
better opportunity of seeing the wondrous results, 
and of admiring the mighty power of God exerted 
on their behalf ; for no sooner had the feet of the 
priests touched the brim of the overflowing river, 
than the swelling waters receded from them ; and 
not only the broad lower valley, but even the deep bed 
of the stream was presently emptied of water, and 
its pebbly bottom became dry. The waters which 
had been in the channel speedily ran off, and were 
lost in the Dead Sea ; while those which would 
naturally have replaced them from above, were 
miraculously suspended, and accumulated in a glassy 
heap far above the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan. 
These places are supposed to have been at least 
forty miles above the Dead Sea, and may possibly 
have been much more. So that nearly the whole 
channel of the Lower Jordan, from a little below the 
Lake of Tiberias to the Dead Sea, was dry.* 

* Bethshean is described in 1 Kings iv. 12, as " by Zartanah 
beneath Jezreel ;" and in chap. vii. 47, of the same book, we read 
that Solomon cast the brazen sea and the vessels of the temple, " in 
the plain of Jordan, in the clay ground between Succoth and 
Zarthan." If Zaretan was, as can scarcely be doubted, the same as 
the Zartanah and Zarthan of these passages, we may infer its position 
with considerable accuracy ; for the situation of Jezreel, (ZerMn,) 



190 THE EWER JORDAN. 

The priests now removed from the brink to the 
middle of the river's bed, where they stood on dry 
ground during the whole time that the immense 
host marched over. In this position, so trying both 
to their faith and patience, they remained all day, 
the Ark being with them, the symbol of Jehovah's 
presence and the token of his favour, thus standing 
between the impending mass of waters and the 
people. Thus in calmness and dignity, without 
hurry or dismay, but in perfect subjection and order, 
the multitude passed over Jordan, and took posses- 
sion of the Land of Canaan. As soon as the passage 
of the host was accomplished, Joshua, under the 
direction of God, took measures for the perpetuation 
of the memory of this grand event. Twelve selected 
men, one of each tribe of Israel, were commanded to 
return into the midst of the channel, where the Ark 
yet stood, and to take thence twelve stones, probably 
as large as each man could carry. These, when 
brought up on the bank, were set up as a monument 
of the miracle in the place where the host lodged ; 
while twelve similar stones were taken from the 
ground, and built up for a similar purpose in the 
midst of the river, where the Ark had stood. Then, 
and not till then, when all had been accomplished 
that the Lord had commanded, without haste, the 
priests likewise ascended out of the channel, and 
carried the Ark of the Covenant into that country 

of Bethshean, (Beisan,) and of Succoth, (Sukhot.) are ascertained, the 
former two with certainty, and the latter with high probability ; 
and are placed in Prof. Robinson's map at the following distances 
from the head of the Dead Sea : — Jezreel, 58 ; Bethshean, 53 ; and 
Succoth 50 statute miles, measured in a straight line. 



DEATH OF THE BELIEVER. 191 

which was henceforth to be no longer the land of 
promise, but the land of inheritance. Instantly, as 
the soles of their feet left the channel, the waters 
began to flow as usual, and soon not only again 
filled the bed of the river, but also flowed over all 
the banks as they did before. 

What a glorious termination of the long pilgrimage 
of Israel was this ! and how worthy of the power, 
wisdom, and goodness of their Divine Protector ! 
" The passage of this deep and rapid river," remarks 
Dr. Hales, " at the most unfavourable season, was 
more manifestly miraculous, if possible, than that of 
the Red Sea ; because here was no natural agency 
whatever employed ; no mighty wind to sweep a 
passage, as in the former case ; no reflux of the tide, 
on which minute philosophers might fasten to de- 
preciate the miracle. It seems, therefore, to have 
been providentially designed to silence cavils re- 
specting the former ; and it was done at noon-day, 
in the face of the sun, and in the presence, we may 
be sure, of the neighbouring inhabitants, and struck 
terror into the kings of the Canaanites and Amorites 
westward of the river." 

The wandering of the children of Israel through 
the dreary desert has always been considered to be 
typical of the believer's pilgrimage through " the 
wilderness of this world." And the crossing of 
Jordan may well represent the closing scene, when 
God " bringeth him to the king of terrors." But the 
terrors of the grisly king himself are disarmed by One 
who has gone before through the dark valley, even 
Jesus, who has been with his follower throughout his 
long wandering, has cared for him, supplied his need, 



192 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

given him bread from heaven and water out of the 
rock, has borne with his waywardness, and pardoned 
his multiplied transgressions, and who now will not 
forget his gracious promises, " "When thou passest 
through the waters, I will be with thee ; and through 
the rivers, they shall not overflow thee." " I will 
never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Death may 
indeed appear terrible in the prospect, and Satan 
may rage and threaten, and the Christian often 
fears that he shall be overwhelmed and lost in the 
dark and turbulent flood ; vet the issue is secured 
by covenant love, and not one of the true Israel 
shall ever make shipwreck there. The triumph is 
certain to the feeblest and youngest, not less than to 
the strongest and most experienced ; since it depends 
not on their wisdom or strength, but on the presence 
of their Almighty Lord. " For though they have 
none of them passed this way heretofore, yet Jesus, 
their Brother and Friend, hath gone before, and 
crossed the river, when its floods were swelled to a 
tremendous height ; and by passing through He hath 
divided the floods before them ; and He safely reached 
the heavenly shore, when He rose from the dead as 
the first fruits of his people, and ascended into 
heaven as their forerunner ; and He began to be 
magnified in the sight of all Israel, when, thus risen 
and ascended, He sent down his Holy Spirit, to give 
assistance to his Apostles and success to his preached 
Gospel. Now, therefore, they may march through 
this dreaded river, without danger or terror, if they 
are but able to keep the eye of faith fixed upon his 
person, his complete salvation, his word of promise, 
and the inheritance which He hath provided for them 



BETHABARA. 193 

on the other side. The Lord will provide for our 
passage of this Jordan when the time comes ; and 
we shall soon join the innumerable multitude, that 
in the Canaan above are singing the praises of their 
great Deliverer, who hath both redeemed them from 
Egyptian bondage, and brought them safe to the 
promised land, through his precious blood, and by 
his all-conquering arm.' * 



MATTHEW in. 



It seems to have been at the very scene which we 
have been describing, that the entrance of the Lord 
Jesus upon his public ministry, and his baptism at 
the hands of his great forerunner, took place, as well 
as that anointing with the Holy Ghost whereby He 
was manifested as the Messiah, and openly set apart 
for the great work which He had come to do. The 
name of Bethabara, "where John was baptizing," sig- 
nifies, "- the house of the passage," and is considered 
to have been distinctive of the place where Israel 
passed over Jordan, the situation of which would no 
less certainly be preserved by tradition, than by the 
monument of stones which had been erected at Gil- 
gal in commemoration of the wonderful event. 

Thirty years had passed since the hearts of " all 
them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem" had 
been thrilled with the announcement that " a Saviour 
had been born to them, which was Christ the Lord," 
and by the narration of the series of wondrous inci- 
dents that had marked his birth, as well as that of 

* Scott, in loc. 

9 



194 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

the son of Zacharias. How must those faithful ones 
have longed to see the Son of David manifested in 
power ! And how, as years rolled on, and they heard 
no more either of Jesus or of John, must they have 
grown " weary with forbearing ;" still believing, 
still hoping, yet with that " hope deferred" which 
" maketh the heart sick !" What a comfort to such 
at this time must have been the grand prophecy of 
Daniel, which had limited the public appearance of 
Messiah the Prince to seventy weeks ; for though 
they might not be able to pierce all the obscurities 
of the prediction, they would surely gather sufficient 
encouragement from it to number back the years, 
and to observe with joy that seventy weeks of years, 
computed according to the usages of symbolic pro- 
phecy, had well nigh elapsed since the restoration of 
Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple. 

Just at this time, there suddenly appeared a man 
who, uniting the character and costume of the old 
prophets with their austerity of manners, began to 
preach in the wilderness of Judea in the style and 
power which had been wont to distinguish them. He 
stood on the banks of Jordan, and exhorted all 
classes of men to repent of their apostasy from God, 
and to bring forth fruits meet for repentance. At 
the same time he administered to all who submitted 
to his teaching the rite of baptism, as a public con- 
fession of sin, and of the absolute need of cleansing 
from it by the energy of the Holy Ghost, of whom 
water was the well-known emblem. His word was 
with Divine power, so that great multitudes daily 
thronged to him from all parts of the surrounding- 
country, as well as Jerusalem, and were baptized of 



JESUS BAPTIZED. 195 

him in Jordan. So great was his sanctity, and 
such was the power that attended his preaching, 
that, in the general expectation which betokened 
that " the time was fulfilled," the populace began to 
think that this might be the promised and long-de- 
sired Messiah. And at length a solemn embassy of 
priests and Levites was sent from the Sanhedrim at 
Jerusalem to ascertain his pretensions. John, how- 
ever, sought not his own glory, but pointed their 
attention away from himself to One actually standing 
among them, though as yet unmanifested and un- 
known, whose shoes he was not worthy to loose, but 
who should presently baptize with the Holy Ghost 
and with fire. 

In the midst of these speculations and inquiries, 
but probably a little before this formal embassy, the 
meek and lowly Jesus, long hidden in the retire- 
ment of humble life, presented himself to John at 
the margin of the Jordan, demanding baptism. But 
the servant hesitated, knowing the divine dignity of 
his Lord, and pleading that it was he who had need 
to be baptized of Jesus, as being tainted with sin, from 
which the Holy One of God was exempt. But the 
Son was now in the " form of a servant," rendering 
unto God that full obedience in man's nature which 
man himself had failed to render. Thus, though He 
had no sins of his own to confess, He would honour 
God's ordinance, and fulfil all righteousness. And 
He was, moreover, the Surety and federal Head of 
all believers ; and thus, though in his own blessed 
Person "without sin," and " separate from sinners," 
He took our guilt upon himself, and made it Ms own, 
in order that He might purge it away. 



196 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

The scruples of the humble forerunner are set at 
rest, and he performs the sacred rite. And now the 
Blessed One, having come up out of the water, is 
engaged in prayer to his Father, communion with 
whom was ever his greatest solace as He trod with 
weary feet the wilderness of this evil world. At this 
moment the heavens are rent above their heads, and 
out of the midst of the dazzling glory thus unveiled, 
there is seen swiftly descending a speck, a bird, 
a spotless dove.* It is the Holy Spirit of God, who 
has assumed that bodily shape, indicative of purity, 
peace, gentleness, and love, and lights upon the 
head of Jesus. Thus anointed by the Holy Ghost, 
given unto Him without measure, the lowly Son of 
Man is manifested as the Christ of God ; while at 
the same instant the awful voice of the .Father is 
heard from the radiant heavens, announcing his in- 
effable love to, and perfect satisfaction in Him : 
"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
pleased." Here then was a sensible manifestation 
of the Three Persons of the Godhead, co-operating 
in this great and illustrious transaction ; the Father 
accrediting the Son, the Son obeying the Father and 
entering on his ministry, the Spirit resting on Him 
in fulness, and sealing Him for his mediatorial work. 
With what entire confidence should we put our cause 
into the hands of our Surety and Advocate, and 
trust Him for a finished salvation, since the ever- 
blessed Trinity are combined to testify to his perfect 

* The words of the Evangelist are explicit, " o-w/ittT^w elSei Jxrel 
77£pi<TT£puv ;" yet some have sought to explain them of merely " a 
hovering motion," like that of a dove ; but the flight of this bird is 
not at all of a hovering character. 



SCENE OF THE BAPTISM. 



l'J7 



fitness for the work which He undertook to perform. 
" Lo ! I come to do thy will, O God !" 

The identical spot on the Jordan's brink from 
which the Lord Jesus descended into the stream, and 
where He stood when the Spirit lighted on Him as a 
dove, has in all subsequent ages been a matter of 
much interest to ascertain. Two places are pointed 
out with equal confidence, and equal assumption of 
certainty ; the one about four miles from the shore 
of the Dead Sea, the other, about three miles higher 




Fords of Jordan (Place of Baptism). 



up the stream. Both spots are scenes had in great 
reverence by the respective parties who advocate the 
genuineness of each ; and annual pilgrimages are 
made to both. The higher site is advocated by the 
Latins, the lower by the Greeks and Armenians. 
Both are described as presenting the most beautiful 



198 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

scenery that this river affords, the banks being 
fringed with tamarisks, willows, the beautiful olean- 
ders in abundance, and many other shrubs in rich 
luxuriance. 

Each party considers its own spot as identical also 
with the scene of Israel's crossing the Jordan to take 
possession of the land ; and we have inferred already 
from the mention of Bethabara, that there was a 
village or monument whose name commemorated 
that passage at the place where he was baptizing. 
But we can hardly suppose the scene of the one in- 
cident to be as limited as that of the other. Two 
millions and a half of people in crossing the dry bed 
of the river would doubtless spread themselves over 
a space of considerable extent ; especially as they 
had the whole length of the river, at least for forty 
miles, turned into dry land for them : so that it may 
not be extravagant to suppose that while the priests 
with the Ark may have stood at the upper or Latin 
site of the Baptism, the extended front of the host 
(none of whom were to approach within three-quarters 
of a mile of the Ark), may have reached three miles 
lower down, to the locality preferred by the Greeks. 

The annual pilgrimage to the latter spot has 
been described by Mr. Elliot, who was present in 
1837. About 5,000 persons from all parts of the 
East were assembled, of whom 3,000 were pilgrims. 
Dressed in every variety of costume, some mounted 
on various beasts of burden, some on foot, horse and 
foot soldiers in gay uniforms, men, women, and chil- 
dren — the assemblage presents a motley appearance, 
as curious as it is picturesque. 

The approach of the cavalcade to the river, after 



THE PILGRIMS. 11)9 

having spent the last night in the neighbourhood of 
Jericho, by the stream which is supposed to be the 
fountain healed by Elisha, is thus graphically de- 
scribed : — 

" A little after midnight the pilgrims put them- 
selves in motion, in order to reach by sun-rise the 
banks of the sacred river ; but it is no easy matter 
to start a caravan of 5,000 persons, and it was three 
o'clock, a.m. before the cavalcade was in progress. 
A number of torch-bearers preceded, carrying flam- 
beaux, which threw a wild blaze of light over the 
plain and the moving host. The Arab cavalry 
marched next, their spirited horses curvetting, while 
they plunged into the high grass and jungle, to drive 
out any lurking;Bedouins. The governor, with the 
Greek archbishop, followed ; and, lastly, the whole 
host of pilgrims, hurrying along with anxious ex- 
pectation to wash in a stream which they vainly sup- 
pose to be endowed with a cleansing moral efficacy. 
In such a multitude, moving without order, subject 
to no discipline, and wrought up to an unnatural 
pitch of excitement by superstitious zeal, it is not 
surprising that many accidents occur. Some of the 
party are generally left dead, many are wounded, and 
all are kept in a feverish state of alarm for their 
personal safety. One thing struck us forcibly, the 
entire absence of sympathy among these professors 
of piety. If an aged man, a feeble woman, or help- 
less child fell from his seat, no friendly hand w r as 
stretched out to aid, and no fellow pilgrim halted to 
ascertain the extent of injury received. The groans 
and cries of the sufferer were responded to by a 
laugh, and the cavalcade moved on regardless of their 



200 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

brother, who, if he met with sympathy and aid, 
found it at the hand of some good Samaritan united 
to him by no ties of country or of faith. 

" The snn arose above the mountains of Moab just 
as we reached the Jordan, after a ride of more than 
two hours over a tract utterly sterile, deserted even 
by the samphire and low shrubs which appear on 
other parts of the plain. Instantly a rush was made, 
and the pilgrims, young and old, rich and poor, sick 
and sound, men, women, and children, plunged into 
the stream. Some of the females and children, how- 
ever, evinced a degree of nervousness ; and here and 
there the father of a family might be seen gently 
chiding his spouse, or more roughly handling his 
young sons ; now religiously forcing the head of a 
little girl under the water, and now struggling with 
a well-grown urchin whose fears had got the better 
of his love of pilgrimage. Of the men, some jumped 
boldly in, communicating a rotatory motion to the 
body as it passed through the air ; a few conside- 
rately occupied themselves in aiding the weaker sex, 
rendering to a tottering mother or timid sister the 
support of filial or fraternal strength. Others re- 
signed themselves composedly to the priests, who, 

standing in the river, poured the sacred 

water three times on the head of the devotee. All 
were clad in winding-sheets, or, to speak more cor- 
rectly, all carried with them, either attached in some 
way to the body, or held loosely in the hand, the 
piece of cloth with which they wish to be enveloped 

after death, which is supposed to protect 

from the power of the devil both the corpse so 
shrouded and the spirit that shall re-animate it. 



THE FORDS. 201 

Some of these promiscuous bathings are occasions of 
great indecorum, but, in the present instance, we 
saw no more than the ghat of every populous town 
on the Ganges exhibits daily. When, however, the 
scene is contemplated as a religious ceremony, and 
when the Turkish governor is observed, with his 
Moslem satellites, ridiculing with proud disdain these 
vain ablutions, and this violation of female modesty, 
the Protestant cannot but lament the errors of those 
who like himself profess the faith of Christ, and the 
consequent degradation of that sacred name in the 
eyes of infidels." * 



JUDGES III. VII. XII. 



We find several allusions in Scripture to the Fords 
of Jordan. We must not imagine that the exist- 
ence of such crossing-places precluded the necessity 
of the stupendous miracle which enabled the whole 
host of Israel to " go through the flood on foot," 
for, at the most favourable time, the shallow parts of 
the stream are but limited in extent ; and, though 
practicable for mounted persons, or adults on foot, 
would have presented insuperable obstacles to little 
children, to the young and sickly of the flocks, in 
which a large part of the Hebrew substance con- 
sisted, and to the cumbrous baggage of a migrating 
people. Besides, as we have already intimated, it 
was about the time of the vernal equinox, when 

* Three Empires, vol. i. p. 76. 
9* 



202 



THE RIVER JORDAN. 



through the swelling floods the river could probably 
at no point have been forded. 

Several of the fords have been described by modern 
travellers, who have crossed the river at the re- 
spective points which they notice. Some of these 
occur in the higher part of the stream, soon after its 
emergence from the Lake of Gennesaret. In the 
beginning of February, Mr. Buckingham found it 
barely fordable about three miles below the lake ; 
and there is another ford a mile lower which is 
shallower. In this, however, the water near each 
bank is deep enough for a horse to swim, but the 




Mount Tabor. 



middle is quite shoal. These have on one side the 
ancient Galilee, just at the foot of Mount Tabor, and 
on the other the country of the Gadarenes, or of 



THE FORDS. 203 

the Gergesenes, both of them familiar scenes in the 
history of our Blessed Lord. 

Twenty miles below the lake there are several 
fords, not far from each other, and the Jordan is 
much crossed in this neighbourhood, as it was of 
old. The most noted places in the vicinity were 
Beth-shan, on the west side, to the wall of which 
the Philistines fastened the bodies of Saul and his 
sons, after the fatal battle of Gilboa ; and on the 
east side, Jabesh-Gilead, the valiant inhabitants of 
which rescued the mutilated corpses from their de- 
grading exposure, and buried them in their own 
city. A little below Bei-san (Bethshan), Captain 
Mangles found the water in March to reach the 
belly of a horse ; and, lower still, Burckhardt found it 
to have nearly the same depth in the midst of summer. 

About twenty miles above the Dead Sea, Captains 
Irby and Mangles again forded the river near the 
end of March, but it was with great difficulty, for 
the waters were much swollen. They thus describe 
the stream at this point : — " The plain, from the foot 
of the mountains, is about half w x ay pretty level, but 
barren ; thence it becomes rugged, consisting of a 
quantity of hills, vales, and deep chasms, in a dry 
soil of very white appearance, and of a saltish nature : 
this continues to within a quarter of a mile of the 
river's bank, whence the rest is a rich flat plain to 
the margin of the river, which is in the bottom of a 
deep ravine, beautifully wooded, and so overgrown, 
that the stream is not seen till you are close to it." 

At a point four miles lower still, Mr. Buckingham 
found the Jordan easily forded by horses ; but this 
was in January, when the water was low. The 



204 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

difference between the upper and lower levels of the 
valley was very conspicuous. The latter was a mile 
wide in some parts, and in others not more than a 
furlong, and was bounded by chalky cliffs tw T o hun- 
dred feet in height. The actual banks of the stream 
were fourteen or fifteen feet high ; and as there w T ere 
indications that these were sometimes overflowed, we 
may gain a notion of the great increase of the stream 
produced by the spring floods. The water was found 
by this traveller to be well-tasted, and, though rapid, 
tolerably clear, because flowing over a pebbly bottom. 

A vengeance, severe and terrible, was often taken 
by Israel at these places upon the surrounding 
nations, whom the Lord from time to time raised up 
against them, on account of their apostasy, and w r ho 
cruelly tyrannized over them. The Rabbins say that 
the best generation of Israel that ever lived was that 
which entered into Canaan, and was contemporaneous 
with the remaining years of Joshua's life. But very 
soon after the death of that able and pious com- 
mander, the Hebrew people began to forget Jehovah 
and the wonders w T hich He had wrought for them, 
and to serve the gods of the nations who had been 
.ast out before them. Then He sold them into the 
hands of their enemies, to bring them to repentance ; 
but when they cried unto Him, He heard, and raised 
up from time to time some mighty man of valor to 
be a deliverer and a judge in Israel. 

One of the earliest of these captivities, — of which 
there were many, but some of which were perhaps 
contemporaneous with others, each being only partial 
in its extent, — was that under Eglon, the king of 
Moab. That prince had formed an alliance with 



EHUD AND EGLON. 205 

Amnion and Amalek, and had taken " the city of 
palm-trees," where, with no greater a force than ten 
thousand Moabites, he had established himself, and 
held Israel in subjection for eighteen years. At 
length Ehud, a left-handed Benjamite, executed 
Jehovah's vengeance upon the tyrant ; and before 
the deed was known, the blast of his trumpet in 
Mount Ephraim aroused the men of Israel, who gladly 
responded to his call. The first object was to secure 
the fords of the Jordan ; for thus not only were the 
ten thousand Moabites shut up to their vengeance, 
and prevented from escape, but the possibility of any 
help being afforded them by their countrymen was 
precluded. The fords were taken ; not a man was 
suffered to pass over ; Israel " slew of Moab at that 
time ten thousand men ; all lusty, and all men of 

valour ; there escaped not a man And the 

land had rest forty years." 

The region which was possessed by the Moabites 
lay chiefly near the head of the Dead Sea, and 
extended only a short distance up the right bank of 
the Jordan. The fords therefore which were taken 
by Ehud must have been those which connected the 
plains of Shittim with the plains of Jericho ; and the 
very locality, recalling, as it surely would, glorious 
memories of the past, while it would nerve the arm 
of Israel to exterminate the foe, would doubtless 
excite feelings of humble self-abasement for their 
apostasy, and kindle fresh love and confidence to- 
wards Jehovah. 

It was at the very same part of the river that the 
consummation of that glorious victory was effected, 
which was ages afterwards spoken of as " the day of 



206 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

Midian." For Beth-barah, " the house of the pas- 
sage," is named as one of the points (probably the 
southernmost) at which the waters were taken ; but 
the vigilance of the Ephraimites doubtless extended 
up the stream, guarding all the fords at least as high 
as those which we have just described after Irby 
and Mangles, and Buckingham. The Midianites 
were pitched in the valley of Jezreel ; and after the 
panic, some of them fled northward to Beth-shittah, 
which lay at the foot of Mount Tabor. 

The repeated apostasies of Israel, untaught by 
repeated punishments and deliverances, had provoked 
Jehovah to let loose upon their land the pastoral 
nomadic tribes that roved beyond Jordan, the Midi- 
anites and Amalekites, and " the children of the 
East." They came swarming like locusts, spreading 
over the entire country, devouring the whole pro- 
duce of the fields and pastures, till " no sustenance 
was left for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass ;" 
and the unhappy owners of the land were compelled 
to hide themselves in mountains, and caves, and 
strongholds. 

At length, in answer to the cry of his people, the 
Lord commissioned Gideon, a man of Manasseh, to 
deliver them. A small army was gathered of four 
and twenty thousand men ; but the Lord had de- 
termined to prove that the strength of Israel lay not 
in sword or spear ; " not by might, nor by power, 
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." The timid were 
permitted to go home ; and the depressed state of the 
people at this time is strongly shown by the fact, 
that of the little army of 24,000 men, 22,000 were 
glad to avail themselves of the permission to retire 



GIDEON. 207 

when they came in sight of the enemy. The Midi- 
anitish host might indeed well appal them, for they 
" lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multi- 
tude, and their camels were without number, as the 
sand by the sea-side for multitude." 

But the 2,000 that remained with Gideon are far 
too large a number still : there must be no room for 
boasting ; Jehovah will have the exclusive honour 
of the victory. By a singular test the number is 
reduced to 300 men, and bv this little band the 
innumerable host shall be discomfited. Jehovah 
himself appoints the manner of proceeding. In the 
middle of the night, the 300 Israelites, divided into 
three companies, take up their positions on three 
sides of the enemy : each man carries a trumpet, an 
earthen pitcher, and a lamp within it. At a given 
signal, each sounds a long blast with the trumpet ; 
the Midianites start up from sleep affrighted, and 
gaze around ; in the same instant, every man breaks 
his pitcher, and out gleams the blaze of three hun- 
dred lamps, while on every hand rises the appalling 
shout, " The sw r ord of Jehovah and of Gideon !" 
The trumpet-blast, the crash of the pitchers, the 
sudden flash of light, and the shouting, all at once 
acting on the senses of men half awakened, and 
heightened by the previous silence and gloom, pro- 
duced a panic : all the host ran, and cried and fled. 

The news of the discomfiture soon spread ; and 
the men of Israel were sufficiently ready to pursue 
the flying foe : the Ephraimites took the fords, but 
not until two of the kings, with a portion of the 
army, had got over. There, however, Gideon and 
his three hundred followed ; " faint, yet pursuing ;" 



208 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

and notwithstanding the churlish lack of patriotism 
in Penuel and Succoth, found the Midianitish kings 
with the remnant of their mighty host. Though 
still utterly disproportioned in numbers, faint with 
hunger and weary with pursuit, the three hundred, 
trusting in the God of Israel, fell on the fifteen 
thousand and discomfited them, taking prisoners the 
two chieftains. Thus, in this wonderful deliverance, 
there fell of the enemies of Israel, " 120,000 men 
that drew sword." 

The experience which Israel had of the irresistible 
power of Jehovah, and the proofs which He was con- 
tinually giving them of his willingness to exert his 
omnipotence on their behalf, ought to have kept 
them faithful to Himself. But it did not ; " for their 
heart was not right with Him, neither were they 
stedfast in his covenant : but He being full of com- 
passion forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them 
not : yea, many a time turned He his anger away, 
and did not stir up all his wrath." And in this how 
like are we to Israel ! How often do we grieve the 
Blessed Spirit, and turn away from Him who has 
wrought so great a salvation for us ! We provoke 
the Lord to chastise us sorely, and give, by our sins, 
a great advantage to our enemies. Yet, He does not 
give us up " as a prey to their teeth ;" and though 
we are feeble, and our spiritual adversaries are 
numerous and mighty, they shall be surely over- 
come ; and the weakest believer may take up the 
song of faith, " Thanks be to God which giveth us 
the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ !" 

A third example of this military practice we may 
allude to in the conflict that resulted upon the 



JEPHTHAH SHIBBOLETH. 209 

triumph of Jephthah the Gileadite. But here the 
Ephraimites were the sufferers, not the gainers by 
the expedient. The Gileadite chief had returned 
from the rout and slaughter of the Ammonites, and 
had reaped the bitter fruit of his rash and foolish 
vow. The fiery Ephraimites, as they had already 
done in the case of Gideon, haughtily remonstrated 
with Jephtbah, because the triumph had been 
achieved without them, though their aid had been 
vainly sought before. Their insulting language 
brought on a conflict, in which, notwithstanding 
their power and prowess, the men of Ephraim were 
worsted. The battle was fought on the east side of 
the Jordan, and when the fugitives endeavoured to 
escape over the river to their own land, they found 
themselves forestalled at the fords, which were 
already in the possession of the victorious Gileadites. 
The test by which the Ephraimite was detected was 
very curious. One would have thought that there 
could be no sensible difference between the men of 
one tribe and those of another ; and that if an 
Ephraimite had chosen to say that he was a Manas- 
site, or even a Gileadite, there would have been no 
means of convicting him of falsehood. But a slight, 
yet perfectly appreciable difference in the pronuncia- 
tion of a letter was found to be a certain criterion. 
The Ephraimites, it seems, could not produce the 
sound of U3 (sh), but substituted for it that of ta (s) ; 
the demand " Say now Shibboleth, 55 (that is a stream) 
at once determined the question : if his organs could 
only say " Sibboleth, 55 it was enough ; he was con- 
victed out of his own mouth, and slain. Thus forty- 
two thousand Ephraimites fell on that occasion, the 



210 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

great majority of whom may be said to have fallen 
victims to their vicious pronunciation. Yet it would 
be more true to say that they owed their death to 
their overweening pride, envy, ambition, their quar- 
relsome tempers, and their unbridled tongues. How 
many of the strifes among brethren, as well as of 
the wars among nations, might be traced to similar 
causes ! May the Lord lead us less to» insist on the 
Shibboleths of party, and more to seek after " the 
things that make for peace, and things whereby one 
may edify another !" 



2 KINGS II. 

Glorious had been the manifestation of divine 
power, when the affrighted waters of Jordan were 
driven back before the host of Israel ; but far more 
glorious was that display of it, which terminated the 
earthly career of the prophet Elijah. He had been 
the faithful witness for God in times of deep dege- 
neracy in Israel, when the open worship of Baal had 
supplanted, almost entirely, the acknowledgment of 
Jehovah ; and the godly of the seed of Jacob, an 
exceedingly small remnant, had been persecuted and 
compelled to hide in glens and caves by the weak 
and wicked Ahab, stirred up by his still more infamous 
wife, Jezebel. As an illustration of the daring impiety 
of the times, we are told that, in the days of Ahab, 
Hiel the Bethelite ventured, in spite of the solemn 
curse denounced by Joshua,* to rebuild the city 

* " And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the 
man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho : he 
shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born, and in his youngest 
son shall he set up the gates of it." — Josh. vi. 26. 



Elijah's rapture. 211 

Jericho ; and though according to the prophecy his 
firstborn was cut off when he laid the foundation, he 
scorned to swerve from his bold purpose, until the 
death of his youngest son, as he set up the gates, 
fulfilled the terms of the prediction, and left him an 
accursed and a childless man. 

Immediately after the record of this solemn inci- 
dent, the Holy Spirit abruptly introduces Elijah the 
Tishbite, denouncing the judgment of Jehovah 
against his apostate inheritance. Like One of whom 
he was an illustrious type, he was the faithful testi- 
fier against evil, and the solitary witness for God ; 
like that blessed One, he proved that godly testimony 
evokes the rancour of the world, which rejected him 
and cast him out. And, like his antitype, he was 
cheered and comforted by communion with his 
Father in heaven, tended by the willing service of 
ministering angels, and, when his suffering course 
was done, and his mission accomplished, received up 
into the celestial glory. 

It is this last wondrous scene that we will now 
contemplate, — the glorious rapture of the prophet 
from the banks of Jordan to heaven. His Lord has 
given him an intimation of the manner of his de- 
parture, so far beyond his desires or expectations. 
Formerly, in a moment of despondency, he prayed, 
" O Lord, take away my life !" but death is to have 
no power against him, not even against his cor- 
ruptible body. And now he knows that the moment 
draws near, and he proceeds, in company with his 
disciple and successor, Elisha, from Gilgal to Bethel 
— from Bethel to Jericho — from Jericho to Jordan. 
These were all scenes that had been associated, in 



212 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

Israel's early days, with glorious interpositions of 
God. Bethel, " the house of God, and the gate of 
heaven," had been the place where the lonely 
and benighted Jacob had seen the mystic ladder, 
reaching from earth to heaven, with the angels as- 
cending and descending on it. Jordan had cleft his 
foaming tide, and " stood upon an heap," to allow 
the host Jo pass over. At Gilgal, the reproach of 
Egypt had been rolled away, and Israel first ate the 
fruits of the land of Canaan. And Jericho, the 
strong and fortified city, had yielded to the conquer- 
ing host their first victory in the land, her mighty 
walls falling prostrate before the trumpet-blasts of 
Jehovah's white-robed priests. But all these hallowed 
memories had been wellnigh effaced, and the scenes 
themselves polluted by the debasing idolatry that 
had spread far and wide. A farewell word of exhor- 
tation, counsel, and comfort to the few faithful ones 
that yet remain, Elijah journeys around to give ; and 
then, as one who has done with earth's associations, 
whether painful or pleasing, he leaves them, in turn, 
all behind him, and keeps his eye on his heavenly rest. 
It is not from the land of Israel that Elijah must 
ascend to heaven, but from the wilderness. " Israel 
had journeyed from Jordan to Jericho ; but Elijah 
journeyed from Jericho to Jordan. In other words, 
as Jordan was that which separated the wilderness 
from the land, the prophet crossed it, thus leaving 
Canaan behind him. His chariot met him, not in 
the land, hut in the wilderness. The land was pol- 
luted, and was speedily to be cleansed of those who 
had introduced the pollution ; the glory was soon to 
take its departure even from the most favoured spot ; 



elisha's request. 213 

Ichabod might be written upon it all : wherefore the 
prophet leaves it, and passes into the wilderness, thus 
pointing out to the spiritual mind, that nothing re- 
mained for heavenly men but the wilderness and the 
rest above. Earth was no longer to be the resting- 
place or portion of the man of God : it was polluted. 
The Jordan had been divided to allow Israel to pass 
from the wilderness to Canaan ; it was now to be 
divided to allow a heavenly man to pass from Canaan 
to the wilderness, where his chariot awaited him, 
ready to convey him from earth to heaven." * 

As the rod of Moses, stretched out over the Red 
Sea, had been the instrument of its division, so now 
the mantle of Elijah, wrapped together, is endowed 
w T ith the same wonder-working energy. It smites the 
waters of the Jordan, and instantly they are divided 
hither and thither, and the sainted associates pass 
over on dry ground. 

Nothing now intervenes ; the last barrier of earth 
is left behind, and the chariot may every moment be 
expected. Elisha is encouraged to prefer his last 
request, before his honoured master be taken from 
him ; and he asks " a double portion of Elijah's 
spirit." This was a large request, but it was the 
desire of faith, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. 
Long ago, he had been called to the prophetic office 
by Elijah's casting his mantle on him as he passed 
by ; but then there had been, perhaps, a struggle 
with earthly affection in his heart, — " Let me kiss 
my father and my mother !" Now, however, the 
prophetic mantle is uppermost in his mind; he 
" covets earnestly the best gifts." Nor shall his 

* Life and Times of Elijah, (Bryant, Bath,) p. 108. 



214 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

holy aspiration be frustrated : a great thing, and 
difficult, indeed, it is, — " a double portion of the 
spirit " of Elijah ! nevertheless, provided he is able 
to witness the glorious rapture, it shall be done. 

And now their converse ends ; for a chariot of fire 
and horses of fire are seen rushing down from the 
sky with winged speed, attended by hosts of minis- 
tering angels. In a moment, the " one is taken and 
the other left," and Elijah is carried up by a whirl- 
wind into heaven. Elisha gazes after his beloved 
master, as he swiftly travels up the empyrean vault ; 
and though he had hitherto calmly contemplated his 
own and Israel's bereavement, the sudden conscious- 
ness of the loss breaks forth in strong grief, and he 
exclaims, — " My father, my father, the chariot of 
Israel, and the horsemen thereof !" — for Tie was now 
taken away, whose prayers, and faith, and inter- 
cession were a better defence for Israel than hosts of 
armed warriors. 

The mantle is dropped, for it belongs to earth, not 
to heaven. It had been, and still is, the symbol of 
power ; but it is power in earthly service. Hence- 
forth, it belongs to Elisha, — the sign and seal of that 
double portion of the Spirit which he had so earnestly 
coveted. 

Thus passed gloriously away into the regions of 
light and joy one who, with all his power, had been 
" a man subject to like passions as we are." And 
thus he became an earnest of those saints who shall 
be found alive at the coming of the Lord. We are 
told that some shall thus remain, — that " we shall 
not all sleep ;" and though it is common to speak of 
death as the universal lot, — as the only certain event, 



THE CHANGE OF THE QUICK. 215 

■ 

this is not according to truth ; for, whether the 
second advent of the Lord Jesus be at the very doors, 
or whether it be deferred for awhile longer, the word 
is clear and explicit, that some shall be, like Elijah, 
triumphantly rapt away without dying, to meet the 
Lord in the air. Not that with mortal corruptible 
bodies we can enter into the heavenly glory ; though 
we shall not all sleep, we shall all be changed ; — in a 
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the great change 
will take place : this corruptible shall put on incor- 
ruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. 
Jesus, himself, shall change our vile body, that it be 
fashioned like unto his own glorious body ; and so 
we shall be entirely like, as w T ell as for ever with, the 
Lord. Doubtless it was so with Elijah ; without a 
pang, without a struggle, all that was earthly, cor- 
ruptible, and mortal, passed away from his body in 
the moment of his transition, just as his well-worn 
mantle dropped lightly to the earth. 

O what a triumph of grace and power will then be 
manifested ! The goodly company of living ones of 
whom the monster Death will be robbed, shall not 
ascend alone. Millions upon millions of those upon 
whom his insatiable jaws have closed, will at the 
same blessed moment be snatched out of his grasp, 
and endowed with new resurrection bodies incapable 
of dying any more ; and all together, a multitude 
that no man can number, arrayed in unearthly light 
and dazzling glory, shall ascend up to the mansions 
of bliss above, to dwell for ever with Jesus. O reader ! 
see to it that you have a well-grounded, scriptural 
hope of being one in that happy ascending throng ! 
for it will include all who, whether alive or dead, are 



y 



216 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

in Christ ; and those who are left behind upon the 
earth, whether in the grave, or in the busy scenes of 
life, will be reserved for judgment and tribulation. 
" The % sting of death is sin ; and the strength of 
sin is the law ; but thanks be to God, which giveth 
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ !" 

. h ' 

2 KINGS V. 

How little does man's happiness or wretchedness 
depend on the possession or deprivation of those 
gifts — wealth, honour, fame, professional success, 
high rank, or what not, which mankind in general 
so much covet ! How often there is a cankerworm 
at the root of the fairest plant of worldly prosperity, 
blighting all its beauty, and turning its fruit to 
bitterness and ashes ! 

In the service of Benhadad, the king of Syria, 
there is one whom all look on with envy as a pros- 
perous and fortunate man. He is the chief-captain 
of the Syrian armies, wielding the highest military 
power in the kingdom ; he is eminent for valour, and 
his name is the theme of the national songs and 
praises ; he is the darling of the people, and in the 
highest favour at the court of the king, for he has 
recently returned from a threatening war which he 
has brought to a conclusion most favourable for Syria, 
and he has carried his conquering arms into the 
territories of the surrounding nations. He is loved 
as well as honoured ; he is surrounded by a family 
circle who regard him with personal affection as 
sincere as it is agreeable. His very servants feel his 



THE LEPER THE LITTLE MAID. 21? 

welfare and interests to be theirs ; but — he is a leper ! 
All his greatness and honour and power is embittered 
by the. constant presence of a loathsome, painful, in- 
curable disease — incurable by any hand less than 
God's. 

In his household there is a little maid, a slave. She 
had been made captive in one of the late Syrian raids 
upon the land of Israel, and dragged away from her 
peaceful and happy home to bondage in a foreign 
land. Hard seems her lot, yet she is happy, and has 
pity to spare for her leprous lord. 

The secret of the little maid's happiness is, that 
she knows the God of Israel ; and in the largeness of 
her heart she utters the ardent wish, that her master 
were with Jehovah's servant, the prophet Elisha, 
" for he would recover him of his leprosy." Probably, 
she had never heard of a leper's actually having been 
cured by Elisha, but it is the language of faith, 
setting no limits to Jehovah's power, or to Jehovah's 
mercy. What a sweet testimony in that idolatrous 
land! 

The remarkable words of the Hebrew maid are 
soon reported to Naaman, and with the concurrence 
of the king, his master, he undertakes the journey 
into Samaria. He comes in the pride of his wealth 
and power, with large presents in his hand, ten talents 
of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten 
changes of raiment, and presents himself in lordly 
state at the door of Elisha. Full of his own greatness, 
he expects that the prophet will come out and per- 
sonally perform a cure, which he thinks himself so 
well able to pay for. How then is he mortified when 
a servant is sent out to him with a simple verbal 

10 



218 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

message to go and wash in Jordan ! And what is 
Jordan ? " Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of 
Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel ? May 
I not wash in them and be clean ?" Thus in his 
pride and wrath, the haughty leper turns away, 
refusing to accept a blessing that costs so little, and 
that puts so little honour on the receiver ! 

It was well for JSTaaman that he had faithful and 
prudent servants, who, without in the least degree 
trenching upon the respect due from them to him, 
were yet able and willing affectionately to remon- 
strate with him, and to show him the unreasonable- 
ness of his conduct. If some severe penance, some 
arduous labour, some long course of self-denial, some 
heavy price had been prescribed, would he not gladly 
have performed the conditions for the sake of the 
result ? How much more, then, when the command 
was, simply, " Wash, and be clean ?" 

Convinced of his folly by this prudent appeal, the 
Syrian captain turns his horses' heads towards the 
Jordan, and soon he perceives its stream in the 
distance gliding through the plain like a thread of 
silver, here and there hidden by the overhanging 
bushes, and again emerging in its beauty, reflecting 
the light of heaven. He alights on the rushy brink, 
and according to the word of the prophet, dips him- 
self in its waters. Six times he has immersed his 
body, but no change is perceptible ; one plunge more 
completes the prescribed number : will it be success- 
ful, or only a mockery? His heart throbs with 
anxiety, as once more his white and scaly flesh is 
buried in Jordan's tide ; but oh ! how quickly does 
he leap out ! for he feels the tide of health thrill 



THE FOUNTAIN FOR SIN. 219 

through his veins in all its delicious novelty ; and he 
needs not the cry of joy that escapes from his de- 
lighted attendants to assure him of what he has 
already felt, that his flesh has acquired the firmness 
and plumpness, and ruddy healthful hue, of the flesh 
of a little child. He humbly, and meekly, and grate- 
fully returns to the house of Elisha, and as he stands 
before his benefactor, he witnesses a good confession. 
" Behold ! now I know that there is no God in all the 
earth but in Israel. . . . Thy servant will henceforth 
offer neither burnt offering, nor sacrifice unto other 
gods, but unto Jehovah." 

A beautiful illustration is thus presented to us of 
the simplicity and the freeness of gospel grace. Man 
in his pride and self-sufficiency would often be 
willing to " do some great thing " for the cure of his 
soul's leprosy ; to have recourse to other ways of 
salvation, than that of simply washing in the 
" Fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness." And 
many cannot consent to be saved for nothing, as 
mere beggars, who would be willing to carry a price 
in their hand. But salvation is of grace ; it is not 
to be bought ; not with penitence, nor with tears, nor 
with prayers, nor with penances, nor with promises 
of reformation, nor with alms, nor with good works 
of any kind. It is offered without money, and with- 
out price. 

To some the apparent inadequacy of the remedy is 
an insuperable objection. They cannot imagine how 
the believing on the Lord Jesus Christ can avail to 
save their souls ; and they are ready to turn away to 
some Abana or Pharpar of their own. But in this 
God is honoured, that the channel of salvation cuts 



220 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

off all boasting from man. It is enough that God, 
the Judge, has ordained the remedy, and that He 
perceives its perfect suitability to the end required. 

But he, who, like Naaman, has been brought to 
try the Divine remedy, has proved its perfect efficacy. 
He has found that the cleansing fountain of Jesus' 
blood has done more than merely purged away his 
sins. Naaman was not merely cleansed, nor put into 
the condition of another man, but made u as a little 
child," a new-born life, so to speak, was given him. 
And so with the poor sinner brought to the blood 
of Christ. He gets more than cleansing, he receives 
a new life imparted to him, and that is life in 
resurrection, for he is made a partaker of the life of 
his risen Lord. A believer is not an old creature 
amended, but a new creature in Christ Jesus. 



2 KINGS VI. 

The story which we are about to relate is one of 
those little incidents which touchingly show forth the 
tenderness of the Spirit of God. Nothing with 
Omnipotence is great ; nothing with Love is little. 
The falling of a sparrow does not take place without 
God's ordaining, and the very hairs on the head of 
one of his saints are all numbered. The sympathies 
of God are ever exercised towards his people, and 
there is no occasion of sorrow to them, however 
trivial, or even contemptible it may seem in the eyes 
of the world, for which He does not care. 

Elisha is again brought before us as the exerciser 
of Almighty power. Not as Elijah, in stern testi- 



THE SONS OF THE PROPHETS. 221 

mony against evil, the witness and intercessor against 
apostate Israel, but the agent of Omnipotence in 
gracious service to man, alleviating the sorrows and 
supplying the need of the evil and the good. Thus 
he, too, was a beautiful type of the Lord Jesus, but 
in a very diiferent aspect from Elijah. 

Through the godly preaching and care of both of 
these devoted men, the Lord had already raised up a 
number of young persons, who were happy, though 
in times when true religion was in very bad savour, 
to give up all their prospects and worldly conside- 
ration for the service of Jehovah. They lived together 
in harmony and love, constituting what have been 
called " schools " or colleges " of the sons of the 
prophets, several of which seem to have been 
established in the towns of Israel. Their poverty in 
the things of the present life is touchingly presented 
to us by the circumstances of the following in- 
cident : — 

Finding the dwelling w T here they resided too small 
for their increasing numbers, the young men propose 
to seek one of larger dimensions, but they have no 
means of attaining their desires, except by the labour 
of their own hands. They therefore say to Elisha, 
their spiritual guide and father, " Let us go, we pray 
thee, to Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, 
and let us make us a place there, where we may 
dwell." In our early days we often wondered why 
they should go so far as to the banks of Jordan for 
this purpose ; but the researches of modern travellers 
have shown a sufficient reason, in the great scarcity 
of timber trees in Palestine, except on the summits 
and sides of the higher mountains, and the banks of 



222 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

the permanent rivers. The margins of the Jordan, 
in particular, are fringed with acacia and tamarisk- 
trees, growing up abundantly from amidst the 
thickets of shrubs that conceal the river's brim. 
Both of these trees afford timber fit for building 
purposes, but the latter was in all probability chiefly 
used from its greater abundance, as well as the 
superior excellence of its wood. 

The Oriental Tamarisk {Tama/rix Orientalist) is an 
elegant and beautiful tree, which grows to the height 
of twenty or thirty feet. Its branches shoot upward 
at an acute angle with the direction of the trunk, 
and hence this tree has somewhat of the graceful 
slenderness of the Lombardy poplar. Its leaves are 
smooth and glossy, and resemble scales set on straight 
rod-like branches ; the wood is hard, and besides its 
value as timber, makes excellent charcoal. It pro- 
duces galls, which are scarcely less valuable in the 
arts than those of the oak. 

The kind and gracious Elisha is well content to 
accompany the humble band at their request, to 
solace their toil by his godly conversation, or to give 
them the benefit of his experience in prudent counsel. 
They come to the wooded bank of Jordan, and are 
quickly engaged in felling the straightest and tallest 
trees for the beams of their new dwelling. Probably 
their strength and industry were greater than their 
skill in the use of their tools, for presently, as one of 
them was felling a tree that grew over the very 
water's brink, the head of the axe came off, and fell 
into the river. It seems a little circumstance, but it 
distressed the young man's mind, for he knew not 
how to replace it ; and it was harrowed. Elisha's 



THE SWIMMING IRON. 223 

sympathies are at once excited : he does not coldly 
say, " It is a trifle, never mind it." The tenderness 
of conscience that grieved over the loss of another's 
property was pleasing to the Spirit of God, and He 
immediately impels the prophet to work a miracle for 
its recovery. Elisha cut down a stick, and cast it 
into the stream at the place where the iron axe-head 
had sunk, and immediately it rose to the surface and 
swam. And the young man put out his hand, and 
took it. 

It is not usually that we find the omnipotence of 
God exerted miraculously about such things as these. 
But perhaps this was permitted, as we have hinted 
above, to represent to those immediately concerned, 
and to us, in future ages, the condescending grace 
wh ere with he can meet every need. Of course, the 
display of power is as truly seen in the floating of 
the iron as in the walking of Peter on the waves of 
the sea. " Both are equally contrary to nature. 
Neither is there any natural alliance between the 
cause and the effect — between the casting in of a 
stick, and the swimming of the iron, as there was 
none afterwards between the putting clay on the eyes, 
and the restoring of sight ; for it is neither the skill 
of the workman, nor the fitness of the instrument, 
that is to be considered, but the excellency of the 
power of God." * 



MATT. XVI. 



The sources of the Jordan require a brief notice, 
as two of them, at least, are connected with the histo 

* Meditations on Elisha (Lond. 1848), p 49, 



224: THE RIVER JORDAN. 

rieal records of holy Scripture. The issuing of the 
large fountain from the mouth of the dark cavern at 
Paneas we have already described. Here Herod the 
Great built a temple of white marble, in honour of 
Augustus ; and his son, Philip, the tetrarch of Iturea 
and Trachonitis, built a city around it, in the appel- 
lation of which, he united the name of his imperial 
patron with his own, calling it Csesarea Philippi. 

It was to the neighbourhood of this city that our 
blessed Lord resorted with his disciples, after he had 
miraculously fed the multitude the second time. He 
probably sought retirement and privacy among the 
wild scenery with which this elevated region abounds. 
It was here that his inquiries, as to the notions which 
his disciples had formed of his person and character, 
elicited from Simon Peter that noble confession, re- 
vealed to him, not by flesh and blood, but by his 
Father in heaven, — " Thou art the Christ, the Son 
of the living God." A glorious declaration was this ! 
and blessed was he that uttered it ! Ignorant of 
much important truth he yet was ; many carnal ex- 
pectations, and worldly, selfish desires were in his 
heart; little sympathy had he, as yet, with the 
purpose for which his Master had come into the 
world ; he had yet to be greatly humbled, and to 
learn the treachery and depravity, as yet unsuspected, 
of his own heart ; nay, his earthliness was about to 
evoke, almost the next instant, a stern rebuke, as the 
very mouth-piece of Satan, from Jesus. And yet 
Peter was a blessed man ; for he had been divinely 
taught to recognize Him whom the Father had sanc- 
tified and sent into the world ; and " no man can say 
that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." 



INTERESTING MONUMENT. 225 

An interesting tradition is preserved by Eusebius, 
connecting this city with the woman of faith, who 
was cured of her inveterate disease by touching the 
border of Jesus' garment. The words of the early 
historian are these : — " But, as we have mentioned 
this city, I do not think it right to' pass by a narra- 
tive that deserves to be recorded for posterity. They 
say, that the woman who had an issue of blood, men- 
tioned by the evangelists, and who obtained deliver- 
ance from her affliction by our Saviour, was a native 
of this place, and that her house is shown in the 
city, and the wonderful monuments of our Saviour's 
benefit to her are still remaining. At the gates of 
her house, on an elevated stone, stands a brazen 
image of a woman on her bended knee, with her 
hands stretched out before her, like one entreating. 
Opposite to this, there is another image of a man 
erect, of the same materials, decently clad in a 
mantle, and stretching out his hand to the woman. 
Before her feet, and on the same pedestal, there is a 
certain strange plant growing, which, rising as high 
as the hem of the brazen garment, is a kind of anti- 
dote to all kinds of diseases. This figure, they say, is a 
statue of Jesus Christ, and it has remained even until 
our times, so that we ourselves saw it whilst tarrying 
in that city." * Other ancient writers have repeated 
this story, and some add that the woman was named 
Berenice. The monument was destroyed either by 
Julian, or, according to others, by Maximin. 

K 

* Eccles. Hist. vii. 18. 



10 



* 



226 THE KIVER JORDAN. 



JUDGES XVIII. 1 KINGS XII. 

At the fountains of the Jordan, which rise at Tel 
el Kady, stood one of the ancient seats of Israelitish 
idolatry. The city of Laish, or Lasha, was of great 
antiquity ; for it is mentioned as one of the border 
cities of Canaan long before the time of Abraham. 
It belonged to Sidon, but was too far removed from 
that powerful maritime city to enjoy the benefit of 
protection from it ; hence, when the lawless Danites 
sent out a colony to smite it with the edge of the 
sword, and to take possession of it for themselves, 
they found it an easy prey. The successful invaders 
then changed the name of the city from Laish to 
Dan, " after the name of Dan, their father." Thus 
this tribe was widely divided in Israel ; for the ori- 
ginal allotment of its portion was in the south-west 
part of Palestine, whereas the new colony was in the 
far north ; so that it became proverbial as one of the 
extremities of the land, — " from Dan even unto Beer- 
sheba." 

The city thus obtained became immediately the 
seat of an established idolatry ; for the Danites set 
up a graven image as an object of worship, which re- 
mained " all the time that the house of God was in 
Shiloh." Thus the tribe of Dan, long before spoken 
of by the spirit of prophecy as " a serpent by the 
way, an adder in the path," had the dreadful pre- 
eminence of first establishing that apostasy from the 
true God which at length poisoned and destroyed 
the whole people. 

This very city was one of the two which, in times 



FOUNTAIN OF TEL-EL-KADY. 



227 



long afterwards, Jeroboam selected as the seats of 
his state idolatry ; for " the king took counsel and 
made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is 
too much for you to go up to Jerusalem ; behold thy 
gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the 
land of Egypt. And he set the one in Beth-el, and 
the other put he in Dan." 

No remains of the ancient city are now visible ; 
but the fountain still bubbles forth as of old, and 
contributes its crystal affluent to the renowned 
Jordan. The site is a small elevation with a level 
summit, in the midst of which is the spring. Dr. 
Wilson thus describes it : — " We suddenly came 



mm, 



"A, 




Freshwater Tortoise. 



upon a circular basin, about a hundred yards wide, 
in the bottom of which great quantities of water 
were rising and boiling up, and a considerable 



228 THE RIVER JORDAN. 

number of fresh-water tortoises* were disporting 
themselves. It formed by far the most copious spring 
which we had yet seen in the country. Two large 
streams of the purest water emerge from it, which, 
after forming a little island, immediately unite into 
a rapid river, ten yards wide, and two feet deep, 
having a very quick descent through a luxuriant 
grove of oleanders, briers, and wild figs, and poplar, 
pistacia, and mulberry-trees. The branch of this 
river was highest on the eastern side." f 

The inhabitants of the region in which these in- 
teresting localities are situated use the Indian Buf- 
falo, in association with the common ox, for the 
purposes of husbandry. It is an uncouth and unpre- 
possessing animal, with shaggy hair, laterally-spread- 
ing horns, and a savage expression of countenance! 
The hot and pestilent morass is its favourite resort, 
where it delights to wallow in the mud and stagnant 
water, or to remain for hours, in the heat of the day, 
almost entirely submerged, with its black, broad 
muzzle alone elevated above the green surface. Its 
power to bear moisture and heat makes it valuable in 
the neighbourhood of water ; and thus, around Lake 
Houle and the Sea of Tiberias it is much cultivated. 
Its prodigious strength, also, renders it a serviceable 
acquisition, though its treacherous and savage temper 
is always dangerous. Dr. Robinson considers this 
to be the Eeem (t^) of the Hebrew Scriptures, 

* The Doctor calls them Testudo Graca ; but he has, no doubt, 
mistaken the genus ; for the land tortoises do not affect the water. 
The fresh-water tortoises constitute a very different family, — that of 
the Emydida, to which, doubtless, belong those mentioned in his note. 

+ Lands of the Bible, (Edinburgh, 1847,) p. 170. 



BUFFALO. 



229 



(translated " unicorn " in our version) ; but there 
seems more probability that some species of rhino- 
ceros was intended. In the monuments both of 
ancient Egypt and of Nineveh, there is a species of 







Bufialo. 



wild-bull or buffalo frequently represented, under 
circumstances which seem to imply that the hunting 
of this savage animal, was an exploit worthy of the 
prowess of a king, and fit to be put into competition 
with the hunting of the lion himself. 



VI. 

THE RIVER JARMUK. 




Topography. — Ashtaroth Karnaim — Beautiful Lake — Mountains of 
Bashan and Gilead — Magnificence of the Scenery — Trees of Bashan 
— The Kingdom of Og— The Eastern Tribes — The Boundary of the 
Land. 

The Country of the Gadarenes. — Demoniacal Possession — The 
Man among the Tombs — Demons and Swine — A Sinner's Deliver- 
ance — Gadara — Its Ancient Sepulchres. 

NUMBERS XXXII. 

In considering the remaining rivers of Palestine, it 
will be convenient to take them in the following 
order ; those which fall into the Jordan and Dead 
Sea on the east, those which have the same termina- 
tion on the west side, and those which empty them- 
selves into the Mediterranean. 

On the left bank of the Jordan, the first stream of 
any importance which the traveller meets with is the 
Jarmuk, or, as it was called by the Greeks, the 
Hieromax. Its name does not occur in the Scripture, 
though the region through which it flows is often 
mentioned both in the Old and in the New Testa- 
ment. One of its sources is at a place called Mezareib, 
supposed to be the ancient Ashtaroth Karnaim, or, 



BEAUTIFUL LAKE. 231 

" the two-horned,'- a town of Bashan, which was 
assigned to the Levites. The name of this city 
indicates its dedication to the Syrian Venus, 

" Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent-horns," 

whose debasing worship was such a snare to Israel, 
and even captivated their greatest and wisest 
monarch, King Solomon. 

The Jarmuk near this place issues from a lake 
about a mile in circumference. According to Mr. 
Buckingham, there is a small grass-covered islet in 
the centre, and a great number of fish swim in its 
crystal waters, equal in size and not inferior in 
beauty to the elegant gold and silver fishes which we 
keep in glass vases. The water is sweet and trans- 
parent, and is never dried up in the most arid 
seasons. A copious stream issues from this beautiful 
lake, which pursues a westerly direction, with com- 
paratively few windings, until after a course of about 
forty miles (in a straight line) it empties itself into 
the Jordan, not far from the southern extremity of 
the Lake of Gennesaret. At its mouth it is Lrty 
yards wide, being nearly as broad and as deep as the 
Jordan itself. Mr. Buckingham in February found 
difficulty in fording it, a little above its debouchure. 

The lake just mentioned is considered as the 
source of the Jarmuk, not because it is the most 
remote, but because it is the most permanent. Many 
streams appear to combine to form this river, drain- 
ing a wide extent of country to the eastward ; one of 
these was described to the traveller just named as 
having its origin three days' journey from the 
Jordan, at a place called Shillal. This word is used 



232 THE RIVER JARMUK* 

by the Arabs of the Nile, to signify a rapid or a 
cataract, but whether it indicated such a feature 
here, he could not clearly understand. 

The elevated country, through which the Jarmuk 
flows, is the ancient mountain region of Bashan and 
Gilead. It was renowned for its fertility, its exten- 
sive pastures, its high-fed and fierce cattle, and its 
towering forests, the " oaks of Bashan," being 
scarcely less proverbial than the " cedars of Lebanon." 
Bashan may be considered as lying to the north, 
Gilead to the south, of the Jarmuk. The former is 
the great pasture region, the soil being remarkably 
fertile, and the vegetation most rich and luxuriant. 
The latter is more elevated, and more broken into 
hill and dale. The northern part is somewhat tame, 
the central picturesque, the southern sublime. 

As the traveller recedes from the Lake of Tiberias 
and from the valley of the Jordan into the heart of 
this region, the scenery becomes very magnificent. 
Trees, which had before been scarce, begin to occur, 
first singly, then in clumps and groves, and at length 
in forests. The roads wind in the most picturesque 
manner along the sides of the mountains, or round 
the fantastic hills, through secluded valleys, and 
narrow rocky gorges overhung with precipices, out of 
the sides and clefts of which springs at every turn 
the Yalonidi Oak, the characteristic tree of this part 
of the country. Many other fine trees^ the prickly- 
oak, the olive, and the pine, and another species of 
Valonidi with broader leaves, are scattered over the 
less lofty heights ; and at greater elevations, the 
arbutus and the fir are seen. The enormous crags 
that jut out from the summits of the mountains are 



MAGNIFICENT SCENERY. 



233 



almost concealed by the noble fir trees that thickly 
shoot up their dark green heads around them. In 
the valley, the oleanders, which everywhere border 
the beds of the winter torrents, grow to a great size, 




Oaks of Bashan. 



and are uncommonly superb, especially when covered 
with their masses of magnificent blossom. 

Lord Lindsay thus describes a lovely valley of 
G-ilead, a little to the south of the Jarmuk : — " A 



234 THE RIVER JARMITK. 

beautiful narrow glen ushered us into a broad valley, 
richly wooded to the summits of the hills with noble 
prickly oaks, a few pine trees towering above them. 
I never should have thought that the shrub which I 
had seen covering the hills at Hebron, could have 
attained such size and beauty ; yet the leaf of the 
largest tree is not larger than that of the shrubs. I 
saw an occasional degub tree, or arbutus, but the 
prevailing trees were oaks, prickly and broad-leafed. 
It was forest scenery of the nobles i; character ; next 
to that of old England, with which none I ever saw 
can stand comparison." 

A similar testimony is borne by other travellers to 
the grandeur and beauty of this region. Mr. 
Buckingham gives the following account of the 
country between Soof, in Gilead, and Om Keiss on 
the south bank of the Jarmuk, supposed to be the 
ancient Gadara. " On leaving Soof, we descended 
into a fine valley, again rising on a gentle ascent, the 
whole being profusely and beautifully wooded with 
evergreen oaks below, and pines upon the ridge of 
the hills above, as well as a variety of the lesser 
trees. This forest, for it fully deserved the name, 
continued for about four or five miles, when we 
opened on a more park-like scenery, the ground 
showing here and there a rich green turf, and the 
woods becoming less crowded than before. The soil 
of the road on which we travelled was clayey, with 
a fine yellow gravel on the surface ; and the track 
was broad and beaten. As we descended to a lower 
level, the pines disappeared, and on the side of one 
of the hills, close to the road on our right, we 
observed a grotto, carefully hewn down in front, 



MAGNIFICENT SCENERY. 235 

with an arched door of entrance, and a small court 
and cistern before it. On alighting to examine it, 
we found it to be an excavated tomb, now containing 
three stone sarcophagi of the usual form and size. 
Were it not for the actual presence of these, we 
should have thought it to have been a cell of resi- 
dence for some solitary living being, rather than a 
place of sepulture for the dead, as we knew of no 
ancient site in the immediate vicinity of the place, 
nor could we find any traces of other tombs near. 
Although this solitude had been chosen, and wild 
bushes had so overgrown its front as almost to con- 
ceal it from the view, this sepulchre had been violated 
as well as all the rest, and its cistern was choked, its 
court partly filled up, and its sarcophagi uncovered 
and empty. . . . We reached, at length, a beautiful 
dell, wooded round on all sides, where we found a 
small encampment of Bedouins striking their tent, 
and removing from the more open part of the vale 
to seek shelter beneath the trees, (on account of the 

rain) A large fire was kindled, cakes were 

baked for us, coffee burnt, pounded and prepared, 
our pipes lighted, and, in short, every office per- 
formed for our comfort and refreshment, by those 
hospitable wanderers, without a thought of compen- 
sation. After a stay of half-an-hour, we departed 
from hence, continuing, still, through the most 
beautifully-wooded scenery on all sides. Mr. Bankes, 
who had seen the whole of England, the greater 
part of Italy and France, and almost every province 
of Spain and Portugal, frequently remarked, that, in 
all his travels, he had met with nothing equal to it, 
excepting only in some parts of the latter country . . . 



236 THE RIVER JARMUK. 

It is certain that we were perpetually exclaiming at 
every turn, how rich ! how picturesque ! how mag- 
nificent ! how beautiful ! and that we both conceived 
the scenery alone to be quite worth all the hazard 
and privation of a journey to the eastward of 
Jordan."* 

The beautiful and fertile country thus described 
was ruled, at the time of Israel's conquest of Canaan, 
by the redoubtable Og, King of Bashan, a remnant 
of an ancient gigantic race. His stature is indicated 
by his bedstead of iron ; " nine cubits (about sixteen 
feet) was the length thereof, and four cubits (or seven 
feet) the breadth of it." He marched at the head of 
his warlike people to repel Israel from the border of 
his land ; but notwithstanding his giant strength and 
prowess, he was discomfited and slain. Thus his 
country fell into the hands of the children of Israel ; 
a region which, though not more than about ninety 
miles in length by thirty in breadth, contained 

" three-score cities all fenced with high walls, 

gates, and bars, beside unwalled towns a great many." 
The enumeration of these cities enables us to form a 
somewhat definite idea of the powder of the Canaanitish 
nations who were dispossessed before Israel, a power 
which, we believe, has been greatly underrated. We 
do not certainly know what the population of these 
walled cities was, but we have some data for con- 
cluding that they were not less numerously inhabited 
than the average of modern cities. The city of Ai, 
which seems to have belonged to the J ebusites, was 
viewed, after the destruction of Jericho, for the 
purpose of estimating the force needful to capture it. 

* Palestine ii. 240. 



THE KINGDOM OF OG. 237 

The spies returned to Joshua, and said unto him, 
" Let not all the people go up, but let about 2,000 or 
3,000 men go up and smite Ai, and make not all the 
people to labour thither, for they are hut few" The 
slighting way in which this place was mentioned, 
clearly shows that its strength was much below the 
average, yet its population is expressly declared to 
have been 12,000. But if we assume this to have 
been the average of the fortified towns of Bashan, 
and that of the " great many" unwalled towns to 
have been half as numerous, we have the population 
of this district alone amounting to upwards of a 
million. 

The land of Bashan became the possession of Gad 
and the half-tribe of Manasseh, who, with the tribe 
of Reuben, had petitioned for the excellent pasture- 
lands on the east of Jordan, " because they had 
cattle." Moses at first thought that their request 
proceeded from a selfish desire to evade the toils and 
dangers of the coming war of conquest, and ad- 
ministered a stern reproof. But they disclaimed 
any such intention, and expressed their readiness to 
go over armed before the children of Israel, leaving 
their families and cattle behind them, pledging them- 
selves not to return until the whole inheritance of 
the land was divided. Their petition was granted on 
these conditions, which they faithfully performed. 

It has been remarked that the strong desire of 
Moses, " I pray thee, let me go over, and seethe good 
land that is beyond Jordan," contrasted with the 
unwillingness of the two and a-half tribes, " Bring 
us not over Jordan," and that they did not see in 
Canaan a type of the heavenly rest which he, by 



238 THE RIVER JARMUK. 

faith, could see and appreciate. " In their too great 
haste for a settlement, they petitioned for, and 
obtained it ; but it was a situation very distant 
from the sanctuary, and it much interrupted their 
intercourse with their brethren ; it was very much 
exposed to their enemies, and uneasy to themselves ; 
and they seem to have been dispossessed sooner 
than the other Israelites."* For it was here that 
the Lord " began to cut Israel short ;" and they 
were exposed to the tyrannical cruelty of Hazael, the 
usurper, King of Syria, during all the days of 
Jehoahaz ; and at length they were carried captive 
into Assyria by Pul and Tiglath-Pileser, perhaps 
forty years before the same fate befel their brethren 
on the other side of Jordan. 

The Promised Land, properly so called, as Michaelis 
has observed, was bounded eastward by the Jordan ; 
and Moses laid no claim to the land east of that 
river, although in the end, the aggressions of Sihon, 
King of the Amorites, and Og, King of Bashan, 
occasioned some of this territory to be acquired by 
right of conquest, when it was given to Reuben, Gad, 
and the half-tribe of Manasseh, as being well-suited 
to their peculiarly pastoral mode of life. Yet, al- 
though the Jordan was the proper boundary of the 
Promised Land, we elsewhere find it promised, that 
the eastward boundary should be the Euphrates. In 
this, however, there is no real contradiction. The 
boundary of the Holy Land, which the Hebrews were 
to divide after expelling the inhabitants, and which 
constituted, in a manner, the citadel of the state, 
was one thing ; the boundary beyond which they were 

* Scott. 



DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 239 

not to extend their conquests eastward, or, in other 
words, that of its outworks, was another. The Jordan 
made the former, the Euphrates the latter. The in- 
tervening space between these rivers was not neces- 
sarily to be occupied exclusively by Israelites, but to 
serve as pasturage for their cattle, the greater part 
of it being fit for no other purpose. 



mark v. 

Embosomed in the steep and craggy mountains 
that rise above the deep-flowing Jarmuk, not more 
than half-a-dozen miles from its junction with the 
Jordan, and still nearer the south-east shore of 
the Sea of Tiberias, lay the city of Gadara, the 
capital of the " country of the Gadarenes." Here, 
in the early part of his gracious ministry, the Lord 
Jesus gave a signal proof of his power to bind and to 
destroy Satan, and exhibited Himself as the Seed of 
the woman, bruising the serpent's head. Almost 
immediately after He had uttered his memorable 
discourse on the Mount, He sailed with his disciples 
across the Lake of Gennesaret. During the passage 
He majestically rebuked the raging winds and weaves, 
and calmed them with his mighty word. He landed 
in the country of the Gergesenes, as they are called 
by Matthew (probably the same as the Girgashites 
of the Old Testament), or of the Gadarenes, as mark 
and Luke designate them. As He walked up into 
the country, there met him one of those miserable 
beings whom the evil spirit was permitted to torment 
and to inhabit. Demoniacal possession was terribly 



240 THE RIVER JARMUK. 

common at this time among degenerate Israel, and 
perhaps nothing, except the actual rejection of the 
Son of God, shows how deeply the nation had fallen 
from its high estate, than this fact. In the early 
days of Israel, Jehovah Himself had personally dwelt 
among them in manifested power and sensible glory ; 
in their last days Satan dwelt among them in 
manifested power and malignity, and with a personal 
presence. 

Some have indeed maintained, with Sadducean 
scepticism, that these possessions were only instances 
of mental aberration or madness, and that the Blessed 
Lord, who is " the Truth," and his apostles, writing 
under the plenary inspiration of Him who is " the 
Spirit of Truth," merely pandered to popular super- 
stition in stating these cases to be what they were 
not. Yarious attributes of distinct personality, as 
speech, fear, deprecation, intreaty, individuality, 
number, and change of place, are ascribed to the 
indwelling demons : they recognised Him as the 
Holy One of God, who was driving them out, but 
whom man knew only by divine revelation, they 
rendered Him an involuntary homage, and in 
shuddering horror alluded to the torment which at 
an appointed time they knew they should receive 
from Him. The Lord himself calls them evil and 
unclean spirits, Beelzebub, and Satan. 

The miserable Gadarene who now met the Lord 
was a notable example of Satanic energy. He 
habitually had his dwelling among the tombs, where 
his supernatural power and ferocity rendered him a 
terror to the neighbourhood. He wore no clothes, 
but lived in brute-like exposure to the elements. No 



DEMONS AND SWINE. 241 

fetters could bind him ; for chains and bands were 
broken asunder by his superhuman strength ; and no 
man could tame him. u And always, night and day, 
he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying 
and cutting himself with stones." 

But the period of his emancipation was arrived ; 
for the Lord of angels as well as men appeared, to 
deliver him from his terrible enemies. The number 
of malignant spirits that occupied as a tabernacle the 
body of this wretched man was great indeed, since, 
to express it, they compare themselves to a legion, a 
division of the Roman army, which at that time con- 
sisted of more than 6,000 men ! What an idea does 
this give us of the immense number of the " princi- 
palities, and powers, and spiritual wickednesses in 
the heavenlies," that are marshalled and arrayed 
under the power of Satan ! Against these the 
believer is called to wrestle ; but he need not fear 
them, for Jesus is the Captain of his salvation, and 
in Him the saint shall surely conquer. 

Being commanded by a word which they could 
not resist nor evade, to come out of the man, the 
spirits mysteriously requested permission to enter 
the bodies of swine, which, in a numerous herd, were 
feeding at a considerable distance on the steep hills 
that overlooked the Lake. The Lord for wise pur- 
poses gave them leave; and presently the whole 
two thousand swine rushed madly down the decli- 
vity, and perished in the waters. 

Thus, the God of Israel coming down to view his 
own goodly land, found it occupied by demons and 
swine ; unclean spirits, and unclean beasts ! And his 
people were so alienated in their minds from Him, 

11 



242 THE RIVER JARMUK. 

as to prefer the presence of their demons and their 
swine to Him who would have delivered them from 
both. " The whole city came out to meet Jesus ; 
and when they saw him, they besought him that 
he would depart out of their coasts !" 

But one, at least, has formed a different estimate. 
It is the poor creature who had been so long the 
object and instrument of Satan's malice and power. 
He is now calmly sitting at the feet of his heavenly 
Deliverer, clothed and in his right mind ; and finding 
it a sweet privilege to hear the words of grace 
and truth that fall from his lips, he prays that 
he may be permitted to continue with Him. And 
though this request is denied, it is only because 
the Lord calls him to a still higher place than that 
of personal enjoyment, however holy ; he is sent 
forth to his neighbours to be a witness to them of 
the power and goodness and grace of his Lord. 

Most, if not all of the miracles of mercy wrought 
by the Lord Jesus, are considered as typical of the 
still more important deliverance which he came to 
achieve from spiritual maladies. He went about, 
healing all that were oppressed of the devil ; but 
none of the maladies wherewith Satan is permitted 
to afflict the bodies of men are comparable to that 
dominion which he has over every soul by nature, 
through sin. Like the demoniac, who had his dwell- 
ing among the tombs, the sinner dwells in the 
doleful regions of corruption and death ; like him, 
he is unclothed, destitute of righteousness, and there- 
fore exposed to the wrath of God ; the prey of fierce 
lusts and passions, he breaks through the restraints 
of the divine law, whose fetters cannot effectually 



a sinner's deliverance. 243 

bind him, because it is " weak through the flesh." 
Like the wretch who was always " crying and cutting 
himself," the sinner is his own enemy ; he con- 
tinually craves after happiness, but all his efforts 
only add sore to sore ; " he heaps up wrath against 
the day of wrath," and drags out an existence ever 
more and more miserable. 

Such an one is found by Jesus ; the strong one 
armed is driven out by a stronger than he. The 
happy man is a new creature ; he has forsaken the 
place of death for a part with him who is essential 
Life ; he is clothed with a righteousness, perfect and 
without spot before God ; he is now made gentle, 
and subject, not by the fetters of law, but by the 
sweet bands of grace ; he sits at the feet of Jesus, 
finding his highest joy in communion with Him ; and 
he is content to go forth at the heavenly bidding, 
furnished out of the heavenly treasury, to testify in 
the very territories of Satan, to the power and grace 
and love, the ability and willingness to save, that 
characterise his Lord, of which he is himself a living 
witness. 

The ancient city of Gadara survives in the modern 
Arab village Om-Keiss. The hill on which it stands 
is covered with the remains of columns and edifices ; 
and, what is still more interesting, the sides of the 
mountains are perforated with caves anciently used 
as sepulchres. These tombs are now occupied as 
dwellings, not only by individuals, but by whole 
families. One of these, when Mr. Buckingham visited 
the place, was used as a carpenter's shop, in which 
its occupant was engaged in constructing a rude 
plough ; while an ancient sarcophagus, that remained 



244 THE RIVER JARMUK. 

within the tomb in perfect preservation, was used 
by the family as a provision chest. 

Captains Irby and Mangles have more particu- 
larly described the same interesting features of the 
place. " Before sunset we arrived at Om-Keiss. We 
were very kindly received by the Sheikh of the 
natives who inhabit the ancient sepulchres ; the 
tomb we lodged in was capable of containing between 
twenty and thirty people ; it was of an oblong form, 
and the cattle, &c, occupied one end, while the 
proprietor and his family lodged in the other ; it was 
near this spot that the people lived in the tombs 
during the time of our Saviour. The walls of the 
ancient Gadara are still easily discernible : within 
them you find the pavement of the city very perfect ; 
the traces of the chariot wheels are still marked in 
the stones. We found the remains of a row of 
columns which lined the main street on either side ; 
two theatres in tolerable preservation are within the 
walls, and without them to the northward is the 
Necropolis ; the sepulchres, which are all under 
ground, are hewn out of the live rock, and the 
doors, which are very massy, are cut out of immense 
blocks of stone ; some of these are now standing 
and actually working on their hinges, and used by 
the natives ; of course the hinge is nothing but a 
part of the stone left projecting at each end, and let 
into a socket cut in the rock ; the faces of the doors 
were cut in the shape of panels."* 

* Travels, p. 297. 




VII. 



THE RIVER JABBOK 



Topography. — Gilead — Bozrah — Picturesque Ravine — Aspect of the 
River — The Wild Boar — Forests of Gilead — Jacob at the Ford — 
The Prayer — The Wrestling — The Blessing. 

Rabbah Ammon. — Bedstead of Og — Joab — Philadelphia — Present 
Desolation. 

GENESIS XXXH. 

As the Jarmuk drains the waters of Bashan, so the 
Jabbok may be considered as carrying to the Jordan 
those which pour down from the mountains of 
Gilead. For though these regions are not accurately 
defined in Scripture, . we know that each of the 
terms designates a considerable territory, which was 
bounded (somewhat vaguely) by the land of Moab on 
the south ; and that Bashan was the more northern. 
There is also a sufficiently marked difference in the 
physical character of the two regions, Gilead being 
the more mountainous. Though it pursues a course 
of sixty miles in length, the Jabbok is but an incon- 
siderable stream in comparison with the Jarmuk. 
It is believed to have its rise in the Hauran, not far 
from the source of the Jarmuk ; whence it flows west- 
ward to Bozrah, the renowned capital of ancient 

245 



246 THE RIVER JABBOK. 

Edom, the subject of such awful denunciations in 
prophecy. " Bozrah is now, for the most part, a 
heap of ruins, a most dreary spectacle ; here and 
there the direction of a street or alley is discernible, 
but that is all. The modern inhabitants, a mere 
handful, are almost lost in the maze of ruins." 
According to the oath of Jehovah, Bozrah has 
become " a desolation and reproach \ a waste and 
a curse /" 

From this ancient city, the Jabbok, or Zerka, as it 
is now called, bends to the south for about fifteen 
miles, after which, it again turns to the westward, 
and passes the Kal-at-Zerka, or Castle of Zerka, one 
of the stations of the Syrian pilgrims' caravan. 
Up to this point its course has been across a wide 
arid plain, sometimes dipping underground, and 
rising again to the surface ; and its waters are fre- 
quently dried up by the summer's sun. But here it 
enters a wilder scene, for its picturesque course is 
cleft through the mountains of Gilead, which rise 
in lofty precipices on either side. About midway 
between this point and its junction wdth the Jordan, 
it is described by Mr. Buckingham, who crossed it 
here, as running between tall and abrupt cliffs, five 
hundred feet high, which look as if cleft by some 
convulsion of nature to give it passage. It is, in fact, 
a deep ravine in a plain, the breadth from cliff to 
cliff being not more than a hundred yards, and the 
dark sides of the hollow chasm are, in general, desti- 
tute of verdure. The traveller descended into this 
ravine by winding paths, since it was everywhere too 
steep to go directly down ; and found at the bottom 
of it a small river which flowed from the eastward, 



PICTURESQUE RAVINE. 247 

appearing here to have just made a sharp bend from 
the northward, and from this point to go nearly west, 
to discharge itself into the Jordan. The banks of 
this stream were so thickly wooded with oleander 
and plane-trees, wild olives and wild almonds in 
blossom, pink and white cyclamen flowers and others, 
the names of which were unknown to him, with tall 
and waving reeds at least fifteen feet in height, that 
he could not perceive the waters through them from 
above ; though the presence of these luxuriant borders 
marked the winding of its course, and the murmur 
of its flow was echoed through its deep channel, so 
as to be heard distinctly from afar. The river here 
was not more than ten yards wide, but it was deeper 
than the Jordan, and nearly as rapid, so that it was 
forded with difficulty. Its waters were clear, and 
agreeable to the taste.* 

At a point lower down, where it approaches the 
Jordan, Burckhardt found it " a small river," in the 
beginning of July; it is, however, a permanent 
stream from its entrance among the hills, owing to 
the numerous torrents that run down their precipitous 
sides into it. Here its banks are covered with the 
prickly Solanum furiosum, which attains a consider- 
able size. 

Captain Lynch, of the late American Expedition, 
has described the appearance of the Jabbok, as it 
issues from its rocky gorge. As they passed down 
the Jordan in their boats, the travellers noticed the 
lofty hills on the left, " immense masses of siliceous 
conglomerate, with occasional limestone," extending 
as far as the eye could reach. High up in the faces 

* Buckingham's Palestine, vol. ii. p. 109. 



248 THE KIVER JABBOK. 

of these hills were seen immense caverns and excava- 
tions, but whether natural or artificial could not be 
determined. The mouths of the caves appeared 
blackened as if by smoke ; which suggested the 
thought that they might be the haunts of robbers. 
The Jabbok was found to be a small stream, trickling 
down a deep and wide torrent bed. The water was 
sweet, but the stones upon the bare exposed bank, 
and the leaves of the ghurrah trees that were there 
in abundance, were coated with salt ; a deposition of 
the atmosphere, doubtless brought by the wind from 
the Dead Sea, which is about twenty miles distant. 
A second bed, at that time (April 17) dry, indicated 
that, in the floods, the stream enters the Jordan by 
two mouths.* 

Just below the Jabbok, the party saw a wild boar 
crossing the river. This fierce and voracious animal 
is very common in the Ghor and the valleys that 
open into it. They issue from the woods at night 
and commit great havoc in the fields and vineyards, 
trampling and tearing down even more than they 
devour : — " the boar out of the wood doth waste it." 
Burckhardt was informed that the Arabs of the Ghor 
are unable to cultivate the common barley, on account 
of the eagerness with which the wild swine feed on 
it ; they are therefore obliged to grow a less esteemed 
sort, which the hogs are too dainty to touch. Irby 
and Mangles once saw a valley grubbed up in all 
directions in furrows by the wild boars ; so that the 
soil had all the appearance of having been literally 
ploughed up. The boars grow to a very large size, 
are of a dingy yellowish grey, or blackish hue, and of 

* The Jordan and Dead Sea, p. 253. 



FORESTS OF GILEAD. 



249 



a most unprepossessing appearance. They are bold 
and desperate, and their tusks make them formidable 
adversaries. 




Boar in n Vineyard. 

The character of the land of Gilead, through whose 
ravines and chasms the Jabbok darkling flows, is 
similar to that already described as marking the hills 
of Bashan. The traveller who climbs the heights 
from the sultry vale of the Jordan, or from the arid 
plains of the Hauran, hails with pleasure the refresh- 
ing coolness of the mountain breeze ; he reclines 
under the grateful shade of the oak and wild pistachio, 
which form thick groves and forests impervious to 
the sun ; while the sylvan scenery everywhere re- 
minds him of that of Europe. The charm of this 
pleasant region is increased by the ceaseless songs 
and other voices of birds, sounds which are little 

11* 



250 THE RIVER JABBOK. 

heard in the parched and treeless plains. Travellers 
speak with delight of " the cooing of the wood- 
pigeons, the calling of partridges, — magnificent birds 
as large as pheasants, — the incessant hum of insects, 
and the hiss of grasshoppers, [probably tree-hoppers, 
Cicadce, are meant,] singing in the trees as happy as 
kings." The prospect from the elevated peaks is of 
the most sublime extent, reaching from the snowy 
summits of Lebanon and Hermon on the north, to 
the hills of Judah and the mountains of Edom on the 
south ; looking over the Lake of Tiberias and the Dead 
Sea, and the whole breadth of Palestine in front, 
the vast horizon bounded by the Mediterranean, like 
a band of polished steel girding half the landscape. 

On the bank of this river, and, as well as can be 
judged, near the middle of that portion of its course 
which lies through the mountains of Gilead, occurred 
a memorable incident in the history of the patriarch 
Jacob. Many years before, the indignation of his 
brother Esau at his having procured, by a successful 
falsehood, his father's blessing, had compelled Jacob 
to flee into Padan-aram, where still dwelt the de- 
scendants of Nahor. There he had resided for twenty 
years ; and now with his two wives and a large family 
of children and servants, and much wealth in cattle, 
he is on his way back to the land of Canaan. But as 
he approaches the country of Seir, the territory of 
Esau, fear of his brother's resentment overwhelms 
him ; and in much anxiety of mind he takes the 
most prudent precautions to mollify him. He first 
of all sends a respectful message, announcing his 
return, in which he delicately mentions the wealth 
that he had acquired ; that Esau may not suppose 



THE WRESTLING. 251 

that he is still a needy adventurer ready to put in 
his claim for the possession of that birthright which 
he had so unworthily obtained. By the expressions 
carefully selected, " my lord, — my lord Esau,— thy 
servant Jacob, — that I may find grace in thy sight," 
— he would also express his readiness to waive for the 
present and in his own person, the dominion over his 
brother, which had been part of the stolen blessing. 
Probably, also, he had learned that the value of that 
blessing and of that birthright was rather spiritual 
than temporal ; and its range rather national than 
personal. 

The news which Jacob's messenger brought back, — 
that Esau was coming to meet him with four hundred 
men, — was well calculated to appal him ; for we 
cannot doubt that the first intention of the bold 
hunter was to avenge the wrong which the mention 
of his brother's name had vividly recalled to his 
memory. Jacob's resource is in prayer. He does 
not neglect prudential means, it is true, but setting 
apart a princely present of two hundred she-goats 
and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty 
rams, thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine 
and ten bulls, twenty she-asses and ten foals, — he 
divides them into three droves, separating them 
rather widely to produce a greater effect, and sends 
them by the hands of prudent servants, with a most 
submissive and respectful message, to appease his 
angry brother. But his last and best resource is in 
prayer ; having brought his whole company over the 
Jabbok, he returns across the ford to pass the night 
in fervent pleading with God. 

Solemn indeed is the scene ! Midnight has thrown 



252 THE RIVER JABBOK. 

her sable wing over the lone valley, into which the 
stars can shed but few and feeble rays, almost entirely 
shut out as they are by the tall cliffs that tower up 
on each side. Silence is all around, broken only by 
the earnest supplications and intercessions, the groans, 
and cries, and stifled sobs, that burst from the anxious 
Jacob. His pleadings are most instructive, for he 
takes hold of God's own covenant and promises, pre- 
senting nothing of his own but unworthiness ; but 
again and again reminding Jehovah of his gracious 
assurances of blessing, and making use of past 
mercies as a plea for future ones. u And Jacob said, 
O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father 
Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return unto 
thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well 
with thee : I am not worthy of the least of all the 
mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed 
unto thy servant : for with my staff I passed over this 
Jordan, and now I am become two bands. Deliver 
me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from 
the hand of Esau : for I fear him, lest he will come 
and smite me, and the mother with the children. 
And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make 
thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be 
numbered for multitude." 

The night is far spent, and Jacob has as yet received 
no sensible token that he is accepted ; but his Father 
hath seen in secret. At length there appears one in 
human form, and engages in wrestling with him, but 
prevails not against him; — a symbolic action, to 
express the need and success of importunate prayer. 
There is no sort of contention that so brings out 
strength, activity, watchfulness, patience and per- 



THE BLESSING. 253 

severance as wrestling ; and therefore it has always 
been felt to be peculiarly suitable to represent strong 
faith in fervent prayer. We know, and doubtless 
Jacob knew who the Mighty Stranger was, who thus 
put to the test his persevering importunity, but 
suffered himself to be overcome. He is called a 
Man ; but He is also called God, and that by Jacob 
himself; and the inspired Hosea calls him at once 
God, the Angel, and Jehovah of hosts. Doubtless it 
was God the ever-blessed Son, who on many occa- 
sions had thus early assumed the human form, which 
afterwards He was to take into permanent union 
with Himself. 

Yes, Jacob well knew his Almighty Opponent ; for 
he exclaimed, " I will not let thee go, except thou bless 
me." And though the sinews of his fleshly strength 
were withered in the conflict, that was his real gain ; 
for the breaking down of all the vigour of the flesh 
is that which always brings in the resources of Christ ; 
and the believer really athirst for the highest good 
can say, " Most gladly will I glory in my infirmities, 
that the power of Christ may rest upon me. When 
I am weak, then am I strong. 55 

" And he blessed him there. 55 And He gave him 
a new name, for as a Prince he had had power with 
God and with men, and had prevailed. Henceforth 
Jacob goes on his way rejoicing : the sorrows of the 
night are gone with its shadows ; and though as he 
once more crosses the ford, he halts upon his thigh 
in a deeper sense of weakness than before, the glad 
rays of the sun that burst upon him over the 
eastern mountain, irradiating the whole vale of 
Penuel, are a fit emblem of the heavenly light and 



254 THE RIVER JABBOK. 

comfort that are filling his heart. He can sing as 
he goes- — 

" Contented, now, upon my thigh 
I halt till life's short journey end : 
All helplessness, all weakness, I 

On Thee alone for strength depend. 
Nor have I power from Thee to move ; 
Thy nature and thy name is Love." 




2 SAMITEL Xn. EZEKIEL XXV. 

One of the tributaries of the Jabbok is the Moiet 
Amman, a little stream coming from the south, and 
pursuing its course partly underground. Near its 
head once stood the renowned metropolis of the 
Ammonites, Rabbah-Ammon. Here the iron bed- 
stead which bespoke the strength and size of the 
gigantic king of Bashan was preserved as a memorial, 
after his death. The city appears to have consisted of 
two parts, one of which containing the royal residence, 
was built in the bed of the stream, which thus en- 
compassed it. When David's general, Joab, besieged 
it, he succeeded, after a tedious blockade, in taking 
this " city of waters," on which he sent for the king, 
that he might have the honour, in his own person, 
of taking that part which was properly the city. Thus 
this noble metropolis, with the country of which it 
was the capital, fell into David's hands, together 
with immense spoil, among which the royal crown 
of the kings of Ammon is mentioned, the weight 
(or value ?) of which with its precious stones, was a 



PRESENT DESOLATION. 



255 



talent of gold, — £5,500 of our money, according to 
the present value of the precious metals. 

The city was rebuilt by Ptolemy Philadelphus with 
much magnificence, and received from him the name 
of Philadelphia. But Jehovah had predicted its 
ruin ; by the prophet Ezekiel He had pronounced 
that Rabbah of the Ammonites should be a desolate 
heap ; that He would make her a stable for camels, 
and a couching-place for flocks. Travellers tell us 
how literally this is fulfilled. Burckhardt actually 
found a party of Arabs stabling their camels in the 
ruins of Rabbah. Mr. Buckingham, speaking of a 
building among the ruins, and constructed out of the 
remains of yet older buildings, says, " On entering it 
we came to an open square court, with arched recesses 
on each side These were originally open pas- 
sages, and had arched door-ways facing each other ; 
but the first of these was found wholly closed up, 
and the last was partially filled up, leaving only a 
narrow passage, just sufficient for the entrance of 
one man, and of the goats, which the Arab keepers 
drive in here occasionally for shelter during the 
night." This traveller lay down among flocks of 
sheep and goats, close beside the ruins of Ammon ; 
and particularly remarks that, during the night, he 
was almost entirely prevented from sleeping by the 
bleating of flocks.* At every step in this once 
populous region there are the vestiges of ancient 
cities, the ruins of magnificent temples, public edi- 
fices and Greek churches ; but all are desolate. 



* Buckingham's Arab Tribes, p. 72. 



VIII. 
THE KEVEK AKNON. 



The Wady Mojeb. — Picturesque Ravine — Wild Beast — Gazelle. 
The Border of Moab. — Defeat of Sihon — Aroer — The City in ihe 

River — Interesting Egyptian Record. 
The Doom of Moab. — The Prophecy — The present Fulfilment — 

Wanders in Misery. 

This is one of the streams whose waters help to fill 
the deep and dreadful gulf that forms the Dead Sea. 
It rises in the mountains to the east of that lake, 
and is formed by the confluence of three minor 
streams. It was pre-eminently the river of Moab, and 
at length constituted the frontier of that country, 
dividing it from the territory of the tribe of Reuben ; 
it is now known to the Arabs by the name of the 
Mojeb, a word which bears no small resemblance to 
Moab. 

We have fewer modern notices of this river than 
of most others, as it has been rarely visited by tra- 
vellers. In many respects, however, it appears to 
resemble the Jabbok, especially in flowing through a 
narrow precipitous gorge of wild sublimity. Burck- 
hardt crossed it in July, about twenty miles from its 
mouth, and thus describes its appearance : " The view 
which the Modjeb presents is very striking. From the 

256 



THE WADY MOJEB. 257 

bottom where the river runs through a narrow strip of 
verdant level, about forty yards across, the steep and 
barren banks rise to a great height covered with 
immense blocks of stone, which have rolled down 
from the upper strata ; so that when viewed from 
above, the valley looks like a deep chasm, formed by 
some tremendous convulsion of the earth, into which 
there seems no possibility of descending to the bot- 
tom. The distance from the edge of one precipice 
to that of the opposite one is about two miles in a 
straight line. We descended the northern bank of 
the Wady by a foot-path which winds among the 
broken masses of rock, dismounting on account of 
the steepness of the road. There are three fords 
across the Modjeb, of which we took that the most 
frequented. I had never felt such suffocating heat 
as I experienced in this valley, from the concentrated 
rays of the sun, and their reflection from the rocks. 
We were thirty-five minutes in reaching the bottom. 
The river, which flows in a rocky bed, was almost 
dried up ; but its bed bears evident marks of its im- 
petuosity during the rainy season; the shattered 
fragments of large pieces of rock which had been 
broken from the banks nearest the river, and carried 
along by the torrent, being deposited at a consider- 
able height above the present channel of the stream. 
A few defle and willow-trees grow on its banks."* 

The steep and narrow valley here described be- 
comes more steep and narrow as it approaches the 
Dead Sea ; and, in the latter part of its course, forms 
a gorge about a hundred feet wide, the sides of which 
have almost the regularity of perpendicular walls, 

* Burckhardt's Travels, p. 372, 



258 



THE RIVER ARNON. 



The American expedition, viewing its mouth from 
the sea, went on shore to examine it, and spent a 
night in the dark and lonely recess. The river has 
formed a delta of soil around the entrance, through 
which it ilow 7 s to the sea. Within the chasm it is about 
eighty-four feet broad, so that it occupies almost 




The Riv^r Arnon. 



the whole width, leaving only a narrow bank ; it is, 
however, fordable, being only four feet deep at the 
utmost, in the beginning of May. The walls of the 
ravine are formed of red, brown, and yellow sand- 



WILD BEASTS. GAZELLE. 259 

stone; those on the south side being mingled red 
and yellow, but those on the north a soft rich red ; 
they are worn by the winter rains into the most fan- 
tastic forms, not unlike Egyptian architecture, as 
will be seen by the engraving, which, by the courtesy 
of its liberal publisher, we are permitted to copy 
from the narrative of the expedition, entitled, " The 
Jordan and the Dead Sea." Captain Lynch found 
it difficult to believe that some were not the 
work of art. He walked and waded some distance 
up the gorge, and found it uniform in width, gradu- 
ally bending to the south-east, so as to limit the view 
at any time to 150 or 200 yards. Though the sides 
appear perpendicular there must Be some passage or 
track down the cliffs, for the travellers observed the 
footsteps of camels, and marks of an Arab encamp- 
ment. A gun which they fired reverberated finely 
against the sides, like repeated and long-continued 
peals of loud thunder, startling the birds from their 
nestling places. They observed the tracks of many 
wild beasts, and among them those of a large feline 
animal, which Captain Lynch calls the Tiger, but 
which was probably the leopard, as the tiger is not 
found in Western Asia. They saw also the footsteps 
of many gazelles, and the body of a dead one.* 

This beautiful animal (Antilqpe Ardbica) is highly 
characteristic of Palestine, where it is found in 
almost all parts of the country, but chiefly in wild, 
barren and rocky wastes. Its colour is a yellowish 
brown, its form is graceful, its motions elegant and 
sprightly, and its large languishing dark eye, so soft 
and swimming, is the very symbol of beauty. It is 

* Jordan and Dead Sea, p. 368. 



260 



THE RIVER ARNON. 



the " Roe" of the Scriptures, which so often affords 
images of activity and grace. Excessively wild and 







The Gazelle, 



timid, the gazelles associate in large herds, in which 
one acts the part of a sentinel to warn his fellows of 



BORDER OF MOAB. 



261 



approaching danger ; when they dart away, bounding 
over the rocks, and leaping from crag to crag with 
the fleetness of the wind. When taken young, they 
readily become familiar, and their beauty and play- 
fulness render them favourites with the Oriental 
ladies. Thus Moore, with his usual truth to nature, 
makes Lalla Rookh say : — 

" I never nursed a dear gazelle 

To glad me with its soft black eye, 
But when it came to know me well, 
And love me, — it was sure to die." 



NUMBERS XXI. 

It was at the Arnon that Israel began to possess 
their land. For though the country east of the 
Jordan had not been originally promised to them, 
yet as the kings of this region chose to assault the 
(to them unoffending) strangers, the conquest of 
their lands was the result. The people were forbid- 
den to make war upon Moab, but as the Amorites 
had some time before dispossessed the Moabites of 
that portion of their territory which lay north of 
the Arnon, this region was not now included in the 
prohibition. The Amorites met Israel at Jahaz, 
a few miles north of the Arnon. It was the first 
time that the latter had seen war, those who had 
formerly engaged Amalek being now all passed 
away ; yet, strong in the strength of Jehovah, they 
discomfited their adversaries, and slew Sihon the 
Amoritish king, and possessed his country extending 
from the Arnon to the Jabbok. 



262 THE RIVER ARNON. 

Hence this first conquest became a sort of type of 
the whole, and was commemorated in a poetical com- 
position, called u The Book of the "Wars of Jehovah," 
the subject of which was " What He did in the Red 
Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon." 

It was to a city in the north of Arnon that Balak 
came to meet Balaam, when he had induced the 
Syrian prophet to visit him for the purpose of cursing 
Israel. But their gracious Lord turned the curse 
into a blessing. 

Possibly, this city was Aroer, which was situated 
on the north side of the river. Burckhardt found its 
ruins on the edge of the precipice that overlooks 
the Arnon, and the ancient name is still preserved, 
with scarcely any modification, Araayr. But, like 
Rabbah, this city consisted of two parts, one on 
the bank, the other in the bed, of the stream ; for 
we find repeated mention of " the city that is in the 
midst of the river," in conjunction with " Aroer 
that is on the bank of the river Arnon."* It is an 
extremely interesting fact, that in the great paintings 
of the Egyptian wars, which have been recently 
brought to light, there is an event recorded which 
seems to apply to this city. It is the representation 
of the war which took place in the fifth year of 
Barneses Nei-amoun, between the Egyptians and the 
Shetha, a people whom Mr. Osburn has in a very 
convincing manner identified with the Moabites, 
called "children of Sheth" by Balaam in Numb. 
xxiv. 17. The period of the scene seems to have 
been the year 1473 b.c. of our common Biblical 

* Josh. xiii. 9, 16. (See also 2 Sam. xxiv. 5.) 



INTERESTING EGYPTIAN RECORD. 263 

chronology, or about eighteen years after Israel had 
crossed the Red Sea. 

The Shetha, in this great picture, are represented 
as laying siege to a fortress garrisoned by a people 
in alliance with the Egyptians, to whom the latter 
had applied for succour. The besieging army is seen 
investing the city, which is strongly fortified. A 
body of infantry drawn up in three close phalanxes 
of 8,000 men each, before the walls of the besieged 
city, turn to receive the attack of the Egyptian 
king, who has marched to raise the siege. This he 
effects, and takes the camp of the besiegers. 

In this action, which, from the elaborate manner 
in which it is depicted, and from its repetition, was 
evidently considered as of importance, the city is 
represented as standing on an islcmd in the midst of 
a river, and connected with the shore by bridges. 
We need not say, how exactly this agrees with the 
position of the Moabitish city Aroer ; and the event 
recorded may have been an attempt made by Moab 
to recover this their own city, which, as we learn 
from Scripture, the Amorites had about this period 
taken from them. Their failure also well agrees with 
the fact, that at the time of the arrival of the children 
of Israel, the city Aroer still continued in the pos- 
session of the Amorites. 



JEREMIAH XLVni. ISAIAH XVI. XVn. 

The pride and arrogance of Moab in later times 
provoked the anger of Jehovah, who by his prophets 
denounced its desolation : " Moab shall be destroyed 



264 THE RIVER ARNON. 

from being a people, because he hath magnified 
himself against the Lord. The cities of Aroer are 
forsaken; they shall be for flocks, which shall lie 
down, and none shall make them afraid. Moab shall 
be a perpetual desolation." " The days come, that 
I will send unto him wanderers, that shall cause him 
to wander, and shall empty his vessels." " O ye 
that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the 
rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest 
in the sides of the hole's mouth." "As a wandering 
bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab 
shall be at the fords of Arnon." 

How minutely this has been fulfilled Oriental 
travellers have abundantly shown. The wandering 
Bedouins roam over the waste that was once thickly 
covered with cities, and, plundering the fruits of 
industry, whenever they are produced, compel the 
miserable inhabitants to wander elsewhere in search 
of a subsistence which the fruitful soil would yield 
them in abundance. Yolney remarks that the 
wretched peasants live in perpetual dread of losing 
their harvests, which they have no sooner gathered 
in than they hasten to secure them in private places, 
and retire among the rocks which border on the 
Dead Sea.* And at the other extremity of the land 
of Moab, Seetzen found many families living in 
caverns, whom he designates, in Scriptural language, 
" the inhabitants of the rocks:"f Near the ruined 
Heshbon, there are many artificial caves in a long 
range of perpendicular cliffs, in some of which are 
chambers and small sleeping-rooms. Burckhardt 
thus describes the miserable descendants of Moab, 

* Volney's Trav. vol. ii. p. 344. t Seetzen's Trav. p. 26. 



WANDERERS IN MISERY. 265 

whom he found in the Wady Wale, one of the 
tributaries of the Arnon. " They wander about in 
misery, have very few horses, and are not able to feed 
any flocks of sheep or goats. . . . Their tents are very 
wretched ; both men and women go almost naked, 
the former being only covered round the waist, and 
the women [the daughters of Moab at the fords of 
Arnon] wearing nothing but a loose shirt hanging 
in rags about them !" * 

* Burckhardt, p. 370. 






12 



IX. > 

Bah 

THE BEOOK ZERED. 



The Boundary of the Desert. — Doubtful Identity — Es Saideh — 
Beni Hamed — Wady Ahsa — Mount Seir — The Faithless Spies — 
The Forty Years' Wandering. 

DEUTERONOMY II. 13, 14. 

The identity of this stream has not been fully esta- 
blished. Some have supposed it to be the modern 
Es Saideh, a tributary of the Arnon, on the south 
side. Others have found it in the Beni Hamed, an 
inconsiderable torrent, not more than six or seven 
miles long, which rising near the ruins of the ancient 
Eabbah Moab, falls into the Dead Sea, near the 
bottom of its eastern bay. But it has been lately, 
with more probability, assigned to the "Wady Ahsa, 
the largest stream that flows into the shallow 
area at the southern extremity of the Sea. The 
course of this river is about thirty-five miles, from its 
rise near Kulat el Ahsy to its mouth just opposite 
the dreary salt-mountain of Usdum. An extensive 
plain, very slightly rising inland, covered with ver- 
dure, all unwonted in this vicinity, but terminating 
seaward in a broad bank of soft mud, is intersected 



THE FAITHLESS SPIES. 267 

by the stream at the termination of its course, which 
for the most part lies through the dark frowning 
rocks of Edom, the ancient Mount Seir. Rugged 
as these mountains are, however, they have not the 
terrible barrenness of those to the west of the Ara- 
bah ; though they are more lofty. Their sides are 
studded with clumps of trees ; and the valleys are 
full of shrubs and flowers, with a good deal of land 
under cultivation. 

The Brook Zered is mentioned only in connexion 
with the termination of the Desert journey of the 
children of Israel. It appears to have formed the 
boundary between the fertile and populous land of 
Moab, and the Desert of Arabia. 

After the people who had been brought out of 
Egypt had sojourned in the wilderness about two 
years, and had received the law of God, with all its 
elaborate ordinances and ceremonial, they came to 
the southern border of the land, whence spies were 
sent to search the country. The evil report, which 
the faithless timidity of most of them gave, acting 
on the unbelief of the host, caused a mutiny, (osten- 
sibly against Moses, but really against Jehovah,) 
that shut the whole of that generation out from ever 
entering into the Land of Promise. Jehovah sware 
in his wrath, that they should not enter into his 
rest, commanding the host to turn again into the 
wilderness, and announcing his irrevocable decree, 
that not one of that whole number, from twenty 
years old and upward, should see the good land 
which they had thus despised, except Joshua and 
Caleb, the faithful spies. Forty days had been occu- 
pied in searching the land ; and, therefore, forty 



268 THE BEOOK ZEKED. 

years, each day answering to a year, shall the people 
wander in the dreary desert, until the whole of that 
unbelieving generation be taken away by death. 

At length the period passed away ; and by the 
faithfulness of Jehovah, Israel were brought to the 
Brook Zered, just thirty-eight years after the time 
when the spies returned to the camp at Kadesh- 
barnea ; and it was found that all the generation 
of the men of war were wasted out from among the 
host, as the Lord sware unto them. 

The Lord is true to his threatenings as well as to 
his promises ; unbelief as effectually shuts us up to 
the former as it shuts us out from the latter. Blessed 
tidings of a prepared rest have been proclaimed 
to us also, but those alone who believe " do enter 
into rest." " Let us labour, therefore, to enter into 
that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of 
unbelief." For "this is the work of God, that we 
believe on Him whom He hath sent." 



X. 

THE BROOK CHERITH. 



Elijah's Retirement. — Brook near Bethshan — Wady Kelt — Jericho 
— Caverns — The Brook — Drought — The Judgment of Apostasy — 
Obedience — The Ravens — A Trial of Faith — An Encouragement 
of Faith — Solitude with God. 



I KINGS XVII. 

Modern researches in Biblical Geography have suc- 
ceeded in identifying many localities of high interest, 
that until lately were doubtful, or altogether un- 
known. Yet, much still remains to be done ; and, 
perhaps, not a few places of note in history may be 
lost, beyond the possibility of recovery. The inter- 
esting scene of Elijah's retirement from the fury 
of Ahab, the wicked king of Samaria, is one of 
those which we cannot at present determinate!} 7 " 
appropriate. Local traditions had placed it at a 
brook on the east side of Jordan, flowing into that 
river at a point a few miles below the ford at 
Bethshan. Dr. Kitto, in his notes in the Pictorial 
Bible, observes that if Elijah had been apprehensive 
of Ahab's persecution, he would probably not have 
been satisfied without interposing the Jordan between 



270 THE BROOK CHERITH. 

himself and his pursuers. The phrase "before 
Jordan," which is used to designate the locality of 
the Brook Cherith, he considers as favouring this 
belief; the term "before," usually signifying " east- 
ward of." "The district is finely broken into hill 
and vale ; and being well wooded, and caverns being 
formed in the sides of some of the hills, it furnished 
as secure a retreat to the fugitive prophet as could 
be well selected, unless he had retired to the moun- 
tains or deserts on the outskirts t)f the kingdom." * 

But in a later publication this learned com- 
mentator favours the identification of the Brook 
Cherith with the Wady Kelt, in the vicinity of 
Jericho, suggested by Professor Robinson ; and the 
evidence, we think, preponderates for this appropria- 
tion. Josephus expressly says that the prophet 
retired to the southern parts of the country ; and 
local tradition has generally (though not uniformly) 
placed the scene to the west of the Jordan. Nor 
would the situation be less secured from Ahab's 
fury, than the country beyond the river ; for this 
locality was situate in the kingdom of Judah, and 
consequently out of the jurisdiction of the Samaritan 
monarch. The word rendered u before," sometimes 
signifies " towards," which would agree as well with 
this supposition as the former ; and, finally, the 
resemblance of the modern to the ancient name is 
no slight point in the evidence, f 

* Pict. Bib. in loco. 

T " The Arabic form Kelt, and the Hebrew Cherith are, indeed, not 
exactly the same ; though the change from Resh to Lam, and that 
of Kaph into Koph are sometimes found. See Gesenius's Heb. Lex." 
(Note to Dr. Robinson's Bibl. Res. vol. ii. p. 289.) 



JERICHO. 271 

The stream called the Kelt receives contributions 
from a great number of winter torrents that wind 
among the hills to the west of the plain of Jericho. 
It is itself but a torrent, dry in summer; but in 
winter it pours a large body of water out of a deep 
and gloomy gorge in the mountains, and winds 
brawling along its rocky bed through the plain, till 
it enters the Jordan. About two miles below its 
emergence from the mountains, it passes a castle and 
modern village, which bear the name of Riha or 
Eriha, a degenerate representative, both in name 
and character, of the ancient Jericho. " One single 
solitary palm now timidly rears its head, where once 
stood the renowned city of palm-trees." North of 
the stream, a lofty mountain lifts its bold preci- 
pitous front, naked and rugged, with a chapel on the 
very summit. Tradition reports that this was the 
"exceeding high mountain," which witnessed the 
temptation of our blessed Lord; that from hence 
the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world 
and the glory of them, in a moment of time. 

The mountains from which this Brook issues are 
mostly precipitous in their character. They are 
chiefly composed of indurated chalk, often presenting 
large beds and slopes in a loose form, and absolutely 
barren. The strata frequently protrude in various 
broken and fantastic masses ; while the faces of the 
ravines are everywhere pierced with natural and 
artificial caves* The whole region, so wild and almost 
inaccessible, is well calculated to afford a secure 
retirement to one desirous of avoiding a persecuting 
enemy. Perhaps here were concealed the Lord's 
prophets, hidden by the faithful Obadiah from Jeze- 



272 THE BROOK OHERITH. 

bel's fury, and fed with bread and water ; and here, 
perhaps, the sighs and tears "of many others of the 
Lord's hidden ones may have ascended to heaven ; 
men of whom the world was not worthy ; who yet 
were driven ont as vagabonds to wander in deserts, 
and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.* 
Far up in the heart of this ravine, shut in by the 
grey and mossy cliffs that almost meet overhead, sits 
a venerable man clothed in the coarsest attire, a 
garment of black camel's hair, bound with a leathern 
girdle. At his feet the brook runs in its stony bed, 
making perpetual music as it frets and foams among 
the rocky masses that lie in its channel. Stern and 
frowning as are the huge precipices, rent with many 
a fissure and yawning cave, the bottom of the gorge 
is not unpleasant ; for a narrow belt of verdure runs 
up on each side of the crystal brook, and now and 
then expands into little grassy slopes, shadowed with 
bushes. At the back of one of these miniature 
lawns, is the mouth of a cavern, so well concealed 
from view by a projection of the rock, and by the 
luxuriant creeping plants that hang in verdant fes- 
toons over it, as to afford a secure retreat. Here, 
seated on a block of smooth stone, is the witness for 
Jehovah against Israel, the prophet Elijah. 

The refreshing coolness and verdure of this spot 
afford a remarkable contrast to the condition of the 
country around. For many months there has been 
neither rain nor dew in the land of Israel; the 
heavens above have been as brass, and the earth 
as iron. The sun day after day pours down his 
burning rays without the shadow of a cloud to miti- 

* Heb. xi. 38. 



THE JUDGMENT OF APOSTASY. 273 

gate the heat ; the winter rains that used to fill the 
brooks have entirely failed ; and the vivifying element, 
at a time when every valley and dell used to be 
overflowing with water, is found only in a few per- 
manent rivers, which are themselves so diminished 
as to arouse the fear that they soon will fail and dry 
up also. 

The land that used to be covered with green 
pastures and fields of corn is almost like the barren 
desert ; the fig-trees and the olives have cast their 
half-formed abortive fruits ; the vines are withered 
on the terraces ; many of the cattle have already 
died, and the few that remain fill the torrid air with 
their mournful Heatings and lowings for that which 
they cannot obtain. Famine is already stalking 
through the land, and the inhabitants are almost 
dependent for water on the wells, whence they have 
to fetch it from long distances, at great expense and 
labour. 

Why is it that God's chosen people in this their 
own goodly land are suffering hunger and thirst? 
Because they have turned aside from Jehovah. They 
have forsaken his covenant, thrown down his altars, 
and slain his prophets with the sword ; true worship 
is almost ceased out of the land ; they have followed 
Baalim, and are mad upon their idols. Elijah saw 
all this, and his spirit was stirred within him ; he 
looked round, in vain for righteousness and truth ; 
the faithful were minished from among the children 
of men ; he saw the fearful alienation, the terrible 
apostasy, and wept over it : he did more, " he prayed 
earnestly." He saw that nothing but strong measures 
would avail, and, therefore, from his home in the 

12* 



274 THE BROOK CHERITH. 

mountains of Gilead he prayed earnestly for severe 
chastisement upon Israel, that Jehovah's rod might 
bring them back to Himself. And then he girded 
himself for testimony; and in guilty Samaria, in 
the presence of the apostate Ahab, the faithful 
Tishbite denounced the solemn, yet merciful judg- 
ment that his prayers had drawn down upon the 
sinful nation, the people laden with iniquity. " As 
the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, 
there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but 
according to my word." 

But did Elijah take any pleasure in witnessing the 
sufferings of his people? Surely no. But as a 
skilful physician administers many a sharp pain in 
order to overcome a deep-seated disease, so the 
servant of God knew that no temporal calamities 
were worthy to be named, in comparison with the 
forfeiture of God's favour. It was "to turn the 
hearts of the children to the fathers," to bring Israel 
back to God in weeping, and mourning, and godly 
repentance, that he asked for judgment, lest Jehovah 
" should come and smite the earth with a curse." 

Having delivered his message, the prophet was 
commanded to hide himself from the malice of the 
unrepenting king, and by withdrawing himself from 
the people augment the calamities about to befal 
them. The Brook Cherith is the place which Jehovah 
has appointed for his servant, and thither in the 
spirit of obedience he is gone. Perhaps it is needful 
for Elijah himself, that he should withdraw into 
private communion with God, after having taken 
such a position before Israel, lest he should exalt 
himself, and forget his own nothingness. 



A TRIAL OF FAITH. 275 

But how is the prophet to subsist in such a place, 
far from the haunts of men, especially when famine 
is every where around ? For this his Lord provides. 
He assures his servant that his wants shall be sup- 
plied, though in a way strange to man's expectation. 
" 1 have commanded the ravens to feed thee there !" 
Elijah hears ; and with this precious promise of 
God, he at once betakes himself to the lonely valley, 
the sombre glens of which are from this time forth 
to be his solitary but not cheerless abode. 

And here we have seen him ; content alike to 
stand forth as the single champion for God in the 
face of an apostate nation, and to be laid aside in 
silence and solitude. Elijah knows that the path of 
obedience is to the creature the only path of happi- 
ness. " This is true in the ease of all, but specially 
so as regards those who stand in the capacity of 
ministers of the Lord. Such must walk in obedience 
if they would be used in ministry. . . . The word of 
the Lord, and the attentive ear of a servant, are all 
we need to carry us safely and happily onward." 
. Yet, it is a trial of faith : nothing but strong faith 
can support the prophet under such circumstances. 
The flesh, of course, would rebel ; would murmur 
at the apparent uselessness of spending life there ; 
at the waste of time ; at the solitude ; at the lack of 
earthly resources ; at the probabilities of famine. 
The brook Cherith still flows, it is true, but how 
soon may this be dried up ! The ravens daily sup- 
ply the bread and flesh ; but what if the ravens 
should fail ? To this the man of God has but one 
shield to present ; it is faith in the promise. " I 
have commanded," saith the Lord ; and therefore 



276 THE BROOK CHEKITH. 

Elijah's eye is not upon the ravens, nor upon the 
brook, but upon his faithful Lord. 

But the lonely residence in the remote ravine 
of Oherith, if it was a trial, was also a great 
encouragement of Elijah's faith. To see day after 
day, and month after month, the crystal waters of 
the mountain stream freshly flowing, when he knew 
that other streams had long ago been dried up, — to 
look on the green turf of that verdant valley, and 
inhale the fragrance of its sweet flowers, when, 
through the whole land besides, the dusty ground 
was gaping for lack of moisture, and fruit and 
flowers were not, — to see morning by morning 
the ravens come flapping their sable wings down 
the narrow valley, and then, having "deposited theii 
burden of bread and flesh, depart — to return again 
in the evening, — surely all this must have called 
forth continual praises, and greatly strengthened his 
trust in God. 

What lessons of the power, love and faithfulness 
of Jehovah must Elijah have learned in his peaceful 
retirement ! For more than a year he sojourned at 
the brook Oherith^ sustained thus every day, by what 
we may, almost without a figure, call bread from 
heaven ! " And who would be without those sweet 
and holy lessons learned in secret ? "Who would lack 
the training of a Father's hand ? Who would not 
long to be led away from beneath the eye of man, 
and above the influence of things earthly and natural, 
into the pure light of the Divine presence, where 
self and all around are viewed and estimated accord 
ing to the judgment of the sanctuary ? In a word, 
who would not desire to be alone with God — alone. 



SOLITUDE WITH GOD. 277 

not as a merely sentimental expression, but really, 
practically, and experimentally alone : — alone, like 
Moses at the mount of God ; alone, like Aaron in 
the holiest of all; alone, like our prophet at the 
Brook Cherith ; alone, like John in the island of 
Patmos ; alone, like Jesus on the mount ? It is to 
have self and the world set aside — to have the spirit 
impressed with thoughts of God and his perfections 
and excellences — to allow all his goodness to pass 
before us — to see him as the great Actor for us, and 
in us: — to get above flesh and its reasonings, earth 
and its ways, Satan and his accusations — and, above 
all, to feel that we have been introduced into this 
holy solitude, simply and exclusively through the 
precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. These are 
some of the results of being alone with God." * 

* Life and Times of Elijah, p. 27. (Bath, 1850.) 




XT. 

THE BROOK KIDRON. 



Topography. — The Valley of Jehoshaphat — Jewish Tombs— Gloomy 

Ravine — Convent of Mar Saba — Flowers — The Cony. 
The Chastisement of David. — His Grievous Fall — The Rebellion of 

Absalom — Ahithophel — The Weeping King — Sin in Believers. 
The Burning of Idols. — Israel's Apostasy — Godly Kings of Judah — 

Asa — Josiah's Reformation. 
Gethsemane. — The Agony and Bloody Sweat — The Suretyship of 

Jesus — Resurrection — Present State of the Garden. 

We come now to speak of that stream which few 
persons will scruple to designate as the most inter- 
esting in the world. The Jordan is a far more 
imposing river, and its history, like that of many 
other of the Sacred Streams of which these pages 
treat, is a history of miracle, while no direct mi- 
raculous interposition marks the Kidron. Yet, asso- 
ciated as it is with Jerusalem and Gethsemane, with 
the sorrows of David, and with the agony of Jesus, 
a halo of radiance encircles the Kidron, that belongs 
to none other, even of the rivers of Palestine. 

Jerusalem is half enclosed by this stream, which, 
rising about half a mile from its north-west corner 
winds round the north and east sides of the city, 
receiving the brook Gihon at the south-east corner, 

278 



GLOOMY KAVINE. 279 

after which it passes off by a precipitous ravine to 
the Dead Sea. In general it is but the dry bed 
of a winter torrent, which is not always filled even 
during the rainy season. Dr. Robinson's remarks 
would imply that the presence of water in the ravine 
is rare, and considers, that even in ancient times, 
it was no more abundant than at present. Mr. Rae 
Wilson, however, found it in a different condition. 
When he visited it there appeared to be a regular 
stream of water in the channel, the ground having 
been saturated by the autumnal rains, and he states 
that it often rushes with great impetuosity. Indeed, 
the very existence of a bridge over it, appears to be 
a sufficient indication, that at particular seasons this 
brook is with difficulty, if at all, fordable. 

The ravine, through the bottom of which the Ki- 
dron flows, is at its commencement merely a slight 
depression between the hill Scopus and the city, 
which gradually deepens, until it becomes a gloomy 
valley ; on one side of which rises the Mount of 
Olives, and on the other the steep cliffs of Moriah, 
with its summit crowned by the wall of Jerusalem. 
This ravine is now commonly known as the Valley 
of Jehoshaphat ; but the application of this name to 
it seems to be comparatively modern. 

The sides of this glen are crowded with innu- 
merable tombs ; for this has been from time imme- 
morial the Jewish burying-place. To lay his bones 
with those of his fathers in the Yalley of Jehosha- 
phat is the dearest ambition of the exiled son of 
Abraham ; for which he is often content to travel 
from the ends of the earth, and to spend the re- 
mainder of his sorrowful days at Jerusalem in poverty 



280 



THE BROOK KIDRON. 



and contempt. For in this valley he believes that 
Jehovah will by and by sit in judgment upon the 
nations ; in that great controversy, the issue of which 
will be, that " Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jeru- 
salem from generation to generation." 




The lower course of the Kidron lies through a 
gloomy gorge of singularly wild character, which has 
not been often traced by travellers. Dr. Wilson 
says, it is deep, romantic, and desolate throughout. 
About midway it divides into two branches, leaving 
a sort of chalky island between them ; but these 
again meet at about a mile distant. 



THE VALLEY OF FIRE. 281 

On the very brink of this " fearful and wonderful 
ravine," not very far from mid way between Jerusalem 
and the Dead Sea, stands the Convent of Mar Saba ; 
said to have been built about the beginning of the 
fifth century. It consists of " a congeries of erections 
on different levels, of various forms, and of unequal 
altitude, the highest being a watch-tower, and a 
tower of defence against the Arabs." It contains an 
establishment of Greek monks, who afford hospitality 
both to travellers and to the native inhabitants who 
seek it. The sides of the rugged precipices which 
form the chasm, running down to an immense depth, 
are perforated with innumerable caverns, where once 
thousands of ascetics resided ; a sort of troglodyte city. 
A tradition is preserved in the convent, that 80,000 
of these hermits were massacred by the Saracens ! 

The remainder of this " horrible ravine" seems to 
be of the same character. Captain Lynch lately 
entered it from the shores of the Dead Sea, and 
traversed it upwards to Jerusalem. It is called in its 
lower course the Valley of Fire ; it is shut in, on each 
side, by high barren cliffs of chalky limestone, which, 
while they exclude the air, throw their reverberated 
heat upon the traveller. The torrent-bed is inter- 
rupted by boulders, and covered with fragments of 
stone. " The sight, from the bottom of the ravine, is 
one well calculated to inspire awe. The chasm is here 
[in the vicinity of the convent] about 600 feet wide 
and 400 deep, — a broad deep gorge, or fissure, between 
lofty mountains, the steep and barren sides of which 
are furrowed by the winter rains. The numerous 
excavations present a most singular appearance."* 

* The Dead Sea and the Jordan, p, 387. 



282 



THE BKOOK KIDKON. 



Even in this yawning gulf some traces of loveli- 
ness are seen. A few fig-trees fringe the bed of the 
torrent, and gardens, with pomegranate-trees, and a 
single palm, surround the convent. The lower parts 
of the ravine presented a few flowers to the last- 
mentioned travellers ; the scarlet anemone and the 




The Pomegranate. 



purple-blossomed thistle being the principal ones. 

They mention also the white henbane, the dyer's 

weed, the dwarf mallow, commonly called " cresses," 

y, and the ca^erjpla&t believed to be the " hyssop that 

^springeth out of the wall," the unexpanded flower- 



\ 



THE CONY. 



283 



( buds of which, preserved in vinegar, are used as a 

y condiment with meat. 

The locality is remarkable for an interesting ani- . 
mal, the Cony of Scripture, that " feeble folk," that 
" make their houses in the rocks." It is the Wabar 
of the Arabs, the Hyrax Syriacus of naturalists, which 
has been only recently discovered in Palestine ; but 
has now been seen by Dr. Wilson and by Captain 
Lynch, and by both in this vicinity. The former 









vs. :• . 




JThe Cony. 



thus describes his discovery : " When we were ex- 
ploring the rocks in the neighbourhood of the con- 
vent, I was delighted to point attention to a family 
or two of the Wabar, engaged in their gambols on 
the heights above us. Mr. Smith and I watched 



284 THE BROOK KIDRON. 

them narrowly, and were much amused with the 
liveliness of their motions, and the quickness of their 
retreat within the clefts of the rock when they ap- 
prehended danger. We were, we believe, the first 
European travellers who actually noticed this animal 
(now universally admitted to be the Shaphan, or 
cony, of Scripture)*, within the proper bounds of the 
Holy Land ; and we were not a little gratified by its 

discovery We climbed up to see its nest, which 

was a hole in the rock comfortably lined with moss 
and feathers, answering to the description given of the 
cony. The specimen thus obtained, when stuffed, I 
have had an opportunity of examining in England. 
The preparer of the skin mistook it for a rabbit, 
though it is of a stronger build and of a duskier 
colour, being of a dark brown. It is entirely desti- 
tute of a tail, and has some bristles at its mouth, 
over its head, and down its back, along the course of 
which there are traces of light and dark shade. In 
its short ears, small, black and naked feet, and 
pointed snout, it resembles the hedgehog."* 

This little animal is one of great interest to the 
scientific naturalist ; since, notwithstanding its exter- 
nal resemblance to the Rodentia, it belongs struc- 
turally to a very different order, the Pachydervnata, 
most of the members of which are beasts of gigantic 
size ; as the elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus. 
Its dental system almost exactly agrees with that of 
these vast animals ; and its skeleton might easily be 
mistaken for that of a rhinoceros in miniature. It 
is named Sha/phan in Hebrew ; and seems now to be 
known by other names besides that of Wabar. The 

* Lands of the Bible, p. 28. (Edinb. 1847). 



THE FALL OF DAVID. 285 

term Daman has been used to distinguish it, and 
Captain Lynch applies to it the uncouth appellation 
of Bteddin. 



2 SAMUEL xv. 

Scarcely any of the ancient saints of God have 
rendered so valuable services to his church, as David 
" the sweet psalmist of Israel." His numerous com- 
positions, inspired by the Holy Ghost, full of fervent 
devotion, have in all ages been dear to the children 
of God ; have stimulated and guided their spiritual 
affections, and afforded a vehicle for the expression 
of their prayers and praises. Yet, on the other hand, 
none have ever inflicted a sorer or more lasting wound 
on the cause of God than David did in the matter of 
Uriah the Hittite. The horrible sins into which he 
fell must have greatly shocked the minds of the 
godly, have been a serious stumbling-block to the 
well-disposed and inquiring among the unconverted, 
and have, even to this day, " given great occasion to 
the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme," as if He 
were not careful about holiness in his elect. Yet 
none but the enemies of the Lord can ever make such 
a use of this good man's fall ; for his deep and bitter 
penitence, and the train of heavy chastisements that 
fell upon him thenceforward, stroke after stroke, 
sufficiently prove that Jehovah, though He " multi- 
plies to pardon," is yet a jealous God, who cannot 
look upon iniquity. The death of Bathsheba's child, 
the defilement of Tamar, the assassination of Amnon, 
were severe strokes, wounding him in the tenderest 






286 THE BROOK KIDRON. 

part, his paternal affection-; but, at length, the un- 
natural revolt of Absalom, and the sad end of that 
beloved but unworthy son, were more terrible than all. 

The standard of rebellion unfurled at Hebron, was 
fast gathering around Absalom the thousands of 
Israel; so fickle and ungrateful were those over 
whom God's king had ruled in righteousness ; at 
length Ahithopel, the counsellor and bosom friend 
of David, with whom u he had taken sweet counsel, 
and walked to the house of God in company," joined 
the insurrection. Then David felt it was time for 
him to leave Jerusalem; for so general was the 
defection of the people, that he saw no safety except 
in flight ; despairing of being able to maintain his 
crown, and unwilling to expose the sacred city to the 
horrors of a siege or a civil war. Doubtless, also, the 
sense of sin was heavy upon his heart ; and though 
he knew that the Lord had graciously pardoned the 
guilt of it, as regarded eternal consequences, yet, 
probably, the thought that all this and much more 
evil was deserved, made him willing to take the low 
place, and humbly yield to the chastisement, rather 
than strive for his right. 

With a few faithful ones the king leaves the gate 
of the city where he had reigned for so many years, 
a disconsolate fugitive ; slowly he winds round by the 
wall, and descends into the valley of Jehoshaphat, 
the mournful place of tombs. He comes to the 
Kidron, and how touching is the scene, described 
with inimitable simplicity and truth by the divine 
pen ! " And all the country wep1> with a loud voice, 
and all the people passed over : the king also himself 
passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people 



THE REBELLION OF ABSALOM. 28 7 

passed over, toward the way of the wilderness. . . . 
And David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet, 
and wept as Tie went wp, and had his head covered, 
and he went barefoot : and all the people that was 
with him covered every man his head, and they went 
up, weeping as they went wpP 

O how grievous a thing is sin in a believer ! and 
how much sorrow does it generally entail upon him ; 
even though, for Christ's sake, it is not imputed to 
him for eternal condemnation. God frequently per- 
mits the ungodly to go on in their course of evil till 
their cup is full, and he removes them to await the 
righteous judgment of the great day ; but if his own 
children will walk after the flesh, He must chastise 
them and make them smart for forsaking Him ; even 
for their own sake, that they may learn how evil a 
thing and bitter it is to walk contrary to Him. David 
doubtless learned in the bitter scene at Kidron, to look 
with more abhorrence on his own vilei*ess ; and the 
people would read in his sad chastisement a solemn 
lesson, when they saw the anointed of the Lord thus 
brought low. Let us never so abuse the grace of God 
as to think that we can sin with impunity, or turn the 
freeness of salvation into a cloak for licentiousness ! 



1 KINGS XV. 2 KINGS XXIH. 






The course of the Hebrew nation, after it had 
passed its meridian of prosperity and glory under the 
reign of Solomon, rapidly declined from allegiance 
to Jehovah. The latter days of that great king were 
not marked with the brilliancy of his early reign ; 



288 THE BROOK KIDRON. 

the lustre that had shone around his character be- 
came grievously clouded by apostasy to idols. The 
two rival kingdoms into which the nation was soon 
divided, fast sank from bad to worse ; until the 
grossest forms of idolatry were rampant, and abomi- 
nations were committed greater even than those 
which defiled the nations round about. But while 
Israel, which had willingly severed itself from even a 
nominal adherence to the true religion, was permitted 
to take its evil course, unredeemed by a single godly 
king, the Lord mercifully vouchsafed to Judah many 
pious monarchs ; who, with different degrees of zeal 
and success, laboured to bring the people back to the 
paths of obedience to the Law of Moses, and to the 
worship of the living God. 

Among the most eminent of these were Asa, 
Hezekiah, and Josiah, in each of whose length- 
ened reigns idolatry was vigorously put. down. It 
was a work gf no small time and labour to search 
out, collect, and destroy the abominable idols, 
which, through the reign of an apostate prince, 
had accumulated throughout the land ; especially 
as the populace, whose hearts were " mad upon 
their idols," not generally sharing in the convictions 
of the pious king, would doubtless throw every 
obstacle that they dared to raise in the way of the 
search. On these occasions of national expurgation, 
it appears to have been the custom to bring the 
idolatrous symbols, when collected, to the brook 
Kidron, and to burn them there. Thus, when 
Asa's grandmother, Maachah, perhaps presuming 
on her rank and age, persisted in keeping an idol 
in a grove for herself, Asa degraded her from her 



GODLY KINGS OF JUDAH. 289 

queenly rank, and burned her senseless god by the 
banks of Kidron. And in Josiah's noble attempt to 
avert the judgments threatened in the law, by a 
thorough reformation and a national return to God, 
he seems to have gone much farther than any of his 
predecessors. He found not only the country gene- 
rally, but Jerusalem, and even the Temple of the 
Lord itself, filled with images, groves, high-places, 
hangings, altars, vessels, and various other instru- 
ments and symbols of demon-worship ; all of which 
he searched out with the utmost perseverance, and 
destroyed. The vessels made for Baal that were in 
the Temple were burned " in the fields of Kidron," 
and their ashes carried to Beth-el, one of the seats 
of the calf-worship, that they might be mingled with 
the dust of the altar and high-place there, and 
defiled with the burned bones of men. Some of the 
detestable objects seem to have been formed of stone 
or marble : these were calcined at the Kidron, and 
then, having been reduced to powder, were cast on 
the graves of those who had worshipped them, which 
lay numerous in the valley around. The altars were 
beaten down, and the dust and fragments were cast 
into the brook ; and probably the idolatrous symbols 
made of metal were reduced to powder by a similar 
process to that by which Moses had destroyed 
Aaron's golden calf, and the powder strewn on the 
brook, to be rolled down by the turbid torrent into 
the Dead Sea — fit receptacle for the defiled and 
defiling objects. 

But Josiah's efforts, laudable as they were, and 
acceptable in the sight of God, being made in a 
sincere zeal for his glory, availed not to turn away 

13 



290 THE BROOK KTDRON. 

the wrath that was denounced upon the nation. 
The reformation, as regarded the bulk of the people, 
was compulsory and hypocritical ; they still wor- 
shipped Baal, and Moloch, and Ashtaroth, in their 
hearts, and waited only the death of their pious and 
energetic king to relapse again into open apostasy, 
which immediately brought down upon them the 
haughty Babylonian monarch, who carried them 
away into captivity. 

& 

MATTHEW XXVI. JOHN XVIII. 

But Kidron had yet to witness a scene of deeper 
interest and vaster moment ; an incident to which 
neither heaven nor earth, neither time nor eternity, 
had ever seen a parallel. Across its torrent-bed the 
weary feet of Jesus passed, pressed by such sorrow 
as David never knew ; and on its shaded banks lay 
the Brightness of the Father's glory, prostrate on 
the earth, as " a worm and no man," w^hile the un- 
utterable agony of his soul wrung from his body 
" great drops of blood falling to the ground." 

All was peace and loveliness around ; Gethsemane's 
turf was redolent with the fragrance of spring ; the 
paschal moon, in full-orbed brightness, shone sweetly 
through the glistering leaves of the hoary olive- 
trees ; the night-breeze broke not the slumbers of 
the three disciples, who slept all unconscious of their 
blessed Master's agony : — but He was battling with 
the invisible powers of darkness, and winning, in 
strife, and groans, and blood, the victory for his 
redeemed Church. But there was more than bodilv 



SURETYSHIP OF JESUS. 291 

anguish, more than mental sorrow, more than the 
power of Satan in that cup of bitterness which the 
Holy One of God was now called to drink. It was 
the fearful burden of imputed sin, and the dreadful 
wrath of God which was its righteous desert. For 
the ever-blessed Jesus, Jehovah manifested in flesh, 
sustained the character of our Surety ; in man's 
nature He was now bearing man's sin ; our iniquity 
was laid upon Him ; it was exacted, and He was 
made answerable.* Thus He, who was the Holy, 
Harmless, Undefiled, Separate from sinners, in 
whom the Father had declared that He was well 
pleased, was treated as a sinner. He stood of his 
own voluntary will in the sinner's stead ; and thus 
it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, and to put Him 
to grief, that we, the guilty, might go free. Jehovah's 
sword awoke and smote Jehovah's Fellow, that out 
of his wounds and death we might get life ; even his 
own life in resurrection. God had determined to 
spare poor hell-deserving sinners, and therefore He 
spared not his own Son. 

Our all-perfect, spotless Surety declined not the 
work which He had undertaken ; bitter as was the 
cup of woe, He drank it to the very dregs. It is our 
joy to know that the mighty work was completed ; 
that what He began in Gethsemane He finished on 
Calvary, to the entire satisfaction of eternal justice. 
He hath put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, a 
full assurance of which blessed fact God hath given 
in that He hath raised Him from the dead. The 
presence of Jesus, in resurrection life, at the right 
hand of God, gives peace to the guilty conscience, 

* Isa. liii. 7, Bishop Lowth's Translation. 



292 THE BROOK EXDRON. 

because it tells that the guilt which was laid upon 
the Surety is upon Him no more ; He has left it 
behind Him — buried for ever in his grave. 

Dear reader ! have you ever by faith seen your 
part in this astonishing transaction ? Can you look 
on Jesus as bearing your load of guilt in the garden 
and on the cross ? And can you look up with joy to 
the heavenly glory, and behold Him there as your 
risen living Head ? If not, may it be your privilege to 
find Him, even the Crucified, in these simple pages ! 



It may be interesting to trace the present state of 
the garden where the Lord Jesus sustained his 
agony. Every traveller to Jerusalem visits it, of 
course, and every writer describes it. We abridge 
the note of Dr. Robinson, on the hallowed spot. 
" Passing down the steep hill from the gate of St. 
Stephen into the valley of the Kidron, and crossing 
the bridge over the dry water-course, . . . near 
the bridge, on the right, is the place fixed on by 
early tradition as the site of the Garden of Geth- 
semane. It is a plot of ground nearly square, en- 
closed by an ordinary stone wall. . . . Within 
this enclosure are eight very old olive-trees,* with 
stones thrown together around their trunks. There 

* Chateaubriand's argument respecting the age of the olive-trees 
in Gethsemane is ingenious. He infers that they must be at least 
as old as the fall of the Eastern Empire, because the Turks, at the 
conquest, laid a tax of one medine on every olive-tree then growing, 
while every olive-tree raised since that time is taxed at half its produce. 
Now, he states that the eight olive-trees of Gethsemane are charged 
only the one medine each. 



PRESENT STATE OF THE GARDEN. 293 

is nothing peculiar in this plot to mark it as Geth- 
semane : for adjacent to it are other similar enclo- 
sures, and many olive-trees equally old 

Giving myself up to the impressions of the moment, 
I sat down here for a time alone, beneath one of the 
aged trees. All was silent and solitary around ; only 
a herd of goats were feeding not far off, and a few 
flocks of sheep grazing on the side of the mountain. 
High above towered the dead walls of the city, 
through which there penetrated no sound of human 
life. It was almost like the stillness and loneliness 
of the desert."* 

* Bibl. Res. vol. i. p. 345. 



XIL 
THE POOL OF SILO AM. 



The Blind restored to Sight. — A Pool and a Brook — the Sub- 
terranean Channel — The Exploring Travellers. 

JOHN IX. 

Though at first sight the reader might suppose 
that this " Pool" could not with propriety be num- 
bered among "Sacred Streams" the objection would 
vanish when he learned that the waters so designated 
run off in a little brook from the Pool to the Kidron, 
•and that, before they accumulate in the reservoir, 
they have already run a course of one-third of 
a mile. Thus it is not without reason that our 
great poet sings of 

" Siloa's brook that flow'd 
Fast by the oracle of God." 

In the Old Testament we find it alluded to in its 
twofold character ; for Nehemiah mentions " the 
Pool of Siloah, by the king's garden," and Isaiah 
speaks of " the waters of Shiloah that go softly." 

It was to this Pool that the Lord Jesus sent the 
man born blind, in order that by washing in its 
waters he might receive his sight; a miracle that 
evoked the malice of the Pharisees, and elicited from 

294 



THE POOL OF SILOAM. 



295 



the poor uneducated man so bold and unanswerable 
a testimony to the divine mission of his Benefactor. 
But his testimony only brought down upon himself 
the ban of those false shepherds, who cast him out, 
and thus threw him into fuller fellowship with his 
already rejected Lord, the true Shepherd of the 
sheep. He had gone before, leading his own sheep 
out : and this was one of the poor blind ones, who 
had received light and healing from the good Shep- 
herd, and found his truest joy in following Him. 



ft ,.•>, 




Pool of Siloam. 



The Pool of Siloam is a deep reservoir, situated at 
the mouth of the Tyropoeon Valley, into which the 
water flows from a basin a few feet above it. The 
superfluous water runs off along the base of Ophel, 
through a narrow rocky channel, to the terraced 
gardens in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, where it is 
expended by being led into a multitude of artificial 



296 THE POOL OF SILOAM. 

channels, for the purpose of irrigation ; else its 
natural course would lead it into the bed of the 
Kidron. About 1,100 feet above the Pool is a 
fountain, called the Fountain of the Virgin, which 
tradition has long represented as the source of 
Siloam. Professor Robinson and Mr. Smith had the 
satisfaction of proving the correctness of this belief, 
tor they actually groped their way through the sub- 
terranean passage which connects these reservoirs, 
entering at one and emerging at the other, a distance 
of 1,750 feet, owing to the tortuous direction of the 
course. In some parts they could proceed only by 
crawling on their hands and knees, or by lying at 
full length and dragging themselves along on their 
elbows. One cannot sufficiently admire the courage 
which enabled them to perform such a feat. The 
passage has been artificially hewn through the solid 
rock ; and it was probably made in order to convey 
the water into the city, at a time when one of the 
extremities was included within the wall. 

The water in the fountain has an unaccountable 
irregularity in the flow, sometimes rising a foot or 
more in five minutes, and then soon returning to its 
former level. The water is sweetish, and has a 
peculiar taste, which, however, does not impair its 
agreeableness or wholesomeness. 






XIIL 
THE RIVER KISHON 



Topography. — The Plain of Esdraelon — Its Fertility — Mount Tabor — 
View from its Summit— Endor and Nain — The Transfiguration — 
The Excellency of Carmel — Scriptural Allusions — The Kishon — 
The Bay of Acre — Tyrian Purple. 

Deborah and Barak. — The Canaanites — Cruel Bondage — Prophetic 
Ministry — Zebulun and Naphtali — Sisera and his Host — The Rout 
— The swollen River — The Death of Sisera — Jael's Justification — 
Faithfulness to God. 

The Prophets of Baal. — Elijah's Emergence — The Assembly at 
Carmel— The Challenge— Baal's Inanity— The Altar of God— The 
Evening Sacrifice — The Fire from Heaven — The Execution of the 
Seducers — Rain — An Appeal. 

The mountains of Galilee are separated from the 
hills of Samaria by a great plain, celebrated in all 
ages for its size, its fertility, and its historical asso- 
ciations. In ancient times it was called the Plain of 
Megiddo, and sometimes the Valley of Jezreel, 
though this term appears to have been strictly appli- 
cable only to its eastern outlet. The Greeks called 
it the " great" or " mighty plain ;" and in later 
times it has been designated the Plain of Esdraelon, 
which is only another form of Jezreel. It is about 
thirty miles long, from east to west, and eighteen 
wide from north to south. It is girded round by 
mountains : on the north are the mountains of Gali- 

13^ 297 



298 THE RIVER KISHOISr. 

lee ; on the north-east and east are Tabor, the Little 
Hermon, and the mountains of Gilboa ; on the south 
are the rising slopes and hills of Samaria ; while on 
the west stretching far away towards the north, lies 
the long elevated ridge of Carmel, terminating at 
length in a bold promontory whose foot is bathed in 
the Mediterranean. 

The exuberant fertility of this great plain has been 
renowned in all ages. The soil is very deep and 
rich, its basis being a dark basalt impregnated with 
iron, forming a black earth very similar to that of the 
cotton districts of India ; this runs to the depth of 
three feet, and rests on a sub-stratum of gravel and 
limestone. It is not perfectly level, but forms a 
series of gentle undulations. If it were well culti- 
vated, it is supposed that it could supply the whole 
of Galilee with corn, if that province were as populous 
as it was of old. As it is, it affords corn, wine and 
oil, and abundance of pasture. Some travellers speak 
of it as an immense surface of corn, the waves of 
which, under the breeze, resemble the agitation of 
the sea. Others call it a vast meadow covered with 
the richest pastures. Doubtless both arable and 
pasture land is found, and travellers speak of the 
parts which they have themselves passed through. 

Two of the mountains that overlook this noble 
plain require particular notice. They are Tabor and 
Carmel. The former is a very marked and prominent 
object standing up singly from the plain ; but its ap- 
pearance varies in different aspects. From the north 
it has the form of a segment of a sphere, appearing 
beautifully wooded on the summit ; from the west it 
is a cone with the top cut off ; and looks much loftier 



VIEW FROM MOUNT TABOR. 299 

and steeper, with the south side destitute of trees. 
The approach to it from the north is through a wide 
and shallow wady, regularly wooded with fine oaks, 
more like the entrance to a nobleman's domain 
than a wilderness. The sides and summit of the 
mountain are also wooded with various trees, among 
which the oak and the wild pistachio are most nume- 
rous. Its height is about 1,000 feet ; the top, which 
forms a little plain, encircled by an ancient wall, has 
been cultivated, but now it is become a table of rich 
grass and wild flowers, which send forth a most 
delightful fragrance. During the fore-part of the 
day, thick clouds commonly rest upon it, concealing 
the verdant crown from the plain. 

Mr. Bonar, who with his honoured companions 
climbed the mountain, thus describes the interesting 
scene that presented itself from the summit : — 

" The sun had just disappeared ; but we had still 
light enough to see the chief points of the magnifi- 
cent landscape. We climbed up upon the ruins of 
the old fortifications on the south-east corner, which 
appeared to be the highest point of the summit, and 
looked around. To the north and north-east we saw 
the plain over which we had travelled, the height of 
Huttin, and the deep basin of the mountains enclos- 
ing the Sea of Galilee. Other travellers have seen a 
part of the lake ; this we did not observe, but the 
hills of Bashan, steep and frowning, appeared quite 
at hand. To the west and south-west lay the largest 
part of the great plain of Esdraelon, bounded by the 
long ridge of Oarmel, and watered by the full-flowing 
Kishon, making its way through it toward the 
Mediterranean. To the south and immediately in 



300 THE RIVEK KISHON. 

front of us, was the graceful range of Little Hermon, 
and behind it the summit of Mount Gilboa. Between 
us and Hermon lay stretched that arm of the plain 
of Esdraelon which encircles Tabor, beautifully varie- 
gated with immense fields of thistles and wild flowers, 
giving the whole plain the appearance of a carpeted 
floor. How great must have been its beauty, when 
its wide open surface was adorned with thriving 
villages planted amidst fields of waving grain and 
gardens of blossoming fruit-trees, and closed in by 
the fertile hills that gird its horizon ! At the foot of 
Hermon, Mr. Caiman pointed out to us Endor, where 
Saul went to consult the woman who had a familiar 
spirit, on the last night of his unhappy career ; and 
a little way to the west of it the village of Nain, still 
marking the spot where Jesus raised the widow's 
son to life. 

" It was easy now to understand why Tabor had 
been so often made a place of rendezvous from the 
days of Barak, and downward ; the hill being so com- 
modious a place of defence, with a copious supply of 
water on the very summit, even w T hen the enemy 
spread themselves on the plain below. From our 
tent-door we saw across the plain the villages of Endor 
and Nain, at the foot of Little Hermon. Endor lies 
under the brow of the hill, and Saul would have an 
easy road from it to the fountain of Jezreel at the 
foot of Gilboa where his army were encamped. Nam 
is further west, and appears to lie still closer under 
Hermon. We observed cultivated fields and verdure 
around it ; and it was here that Mr. Calhoun, our 
American friend, whom we met at Alexandria, found 
many tombs cut out of the rock, one of which may 



MOUNT CARMEL. 301 

have been the intended sepulchre of the young man 
whom Jesus met as they carried him out dead, and 
restored to the weeping widow. Jesus must have 
known this spot well, for he would often pass it on 
his way to the Lake of Galilee. No place in all this 
land furnishes more remarkable illustrations of the 
sovereignty of God than do these two villages. At 
Endor you see a king, in the anguish of despair con- 
sulting with a diviner, and warned by the dead that 
the Lord had departed from him and become his 
enemy. But on the same plain, a few miles from 
Endor, a thousand years after, you see at Nain, 
' God over all, 5 coming in our nature, and wiping 
away the tears of a poor widow." * 

At the opposite extremity of the plain, Carmel rears 
his lofty head, looking over the blue expanse of the 
Mediterranean towards the setting sun. It is the 
bold termination of a straight mountainous ridge, 
about eight or ten miles long, and in its loftiest part 
nearly 1,500 feet high. " Carmel is no place," ob- 
serves Mr. Carne, u for crags or precipices, or rocks 
of the wild goats, — it is the most beautiful moun- 
tain in Palestine, in many parts covered with 
trees and flowers." Though neglected, the sides 
are very fertile, and capable of producing the fruits 
of the earth, in great profusion. The fruits, though 
gathered from wild stocks, are sufficiently excellent 
to show what they would be if well cultured. On 
the summit a vast number of kine, sheep, goats, 
antelopes, hares, rabbits, partridges, and other kinds 
of animals feed, all excellent in their kind, because 
they find abundant nourishment. The air is 

* Narrative of a Mission to the Jews, pp. 300, 302. (Edinb. 1843.) 



302 



THE RIVEK KISHON. 



always cool and refreshing, however sultry the plains 
may be. 

Through the magnificent Plain of Esdraelon flows 
the Kishon, the most important river of Palestine 
to the west of the Jordan. It has its remotest 
source on the south-west side of Mount Tabor, 
whence it flows in a winding course, with a general 
westerly direction, to about the middle of the plain. 
It here receives a considerable branch, coming from 
the south and east, and then pursues a north-west 
course, till it discharges itself into the Mediterranean, 
at the very foot of Oarmel. Some eight or ten miles 
before its discharge, it is joined by a large stream 
from the north and east ; and from the sides of 
Carmel a number of torrents pour down into it, in 




The Kishon. 



the rainy season, a great volume of water. Hence, 
at such times, it overflows its banks, and acquires a 
great impetuosity, carrying everything before it. 
The higher parts of the river appear to be dried up 
in summer ; but in its lower course the Kishon is a 



THE CANAAJS1TES. 303 

permanent stream, even in the driest seasons pouring 
into the sea a body of water about thirty yards wide, 
and of too great a depth to be forded. It is at present 
called the Mukutta. 

v 

JUDGES IV. 

During the fourscore years of rest that the 
southern tribes of Israel enjoyed after their deliver- 
ance from Eglon, the king of Moab, the northern 
portions of the land were grievously oppressed by 
the remnant of the Canaanites. Through unbelief 
and sloth Israel had neglected to complete the ex- 
termination of the wicked nations whom Jehovah 
had solemnly devoted to utter destruction ; and had 
allowed them to remain, supposing that they could 
never recover any power to molest them, though God 
had expressly warned them that these idolatrous 
tribes would prove " snares and traps unto them, 
scourges in their sides, and thorns in their eyes." 
And they quickly proved, by miserable experience, 
the folly of their negligence. Under the adminis- 
tration of a vigorous king, the northern Canaanites 
had gradually but rapidly concentrated their power, 
until they were able to reduce into bondage the 
whole of Galilee, and to hold in awe the middle 
portion of the land, and the region beyond Jordan. 
The name of the Canaanitish monarch was Jabin, 
and the metropolis of his kingdom was Hazor, near 
the lake of Merom, where, a hundred years before, 
Joshua had gained a glorious victory over another 
king Jabin, probably the ancestor of him who now 



304 THE RIVER KISHON. 

reigned. A mighty army was the engine of his 
oppressive power, commanded by Sisera, an able and 
renowned warrior, whose force is significantly inti- 
mated by the fact that he had nine hundred of those 
" chariots of iron" which had struck such terror into 
the Israelites. Twenty years he mightily oppressed 
the children of Israel, who were subjected not only to 
the exactions of the government, but to the tyrannies 
and wanton cruelties of extortionate subordinates 
and the brutal soldiery. This we learn from Deborah's 
triumphal song, in which she feelingly alludes to the 
terror that had prevailed. The highways were unoc- 
cupied because of the robberies and violence that were 
practised there with impunity. The villages and un- 
fortified towns were deserted, neither life nor property 
being secure. Those who were necessitated to journey 
from one city to another were in the utmost jeopardy, 
and were fain to steal along the lanes and by-ways. 
To venture outside the gates was perilous ; even the 
maidens who resorted to the wells for the daily supply 
of water were made a mark for the arrows of the 
cruel archers. To these insults no effectual resistance 
could be offered, for the people had all been com- 
pelled to deliver up their arms, and scarcely a single 
shield or spear could be found among forty thousand, 
where a little while before every able-bodied man had 
been a warrior. 

Meanwhile Israel stupidly sought to idols who 
could not save, and " chose new gods" equally 
powerless, — forgetful of God that made them, and 
lightly esteeming the Rock of their salvation. " How 
should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thou- 
sand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and 



DEBORAH AND BARAK. 305 

the Lord had shut them up ?" At length, however, 
they cried unto Jehovah, always ready to forgive, 
and He raised up for them a deliverer, such an one 
as they little expected, in the person of a woman. 

Under a palm-tree in the south of Mount Ephraim, 
dwelt in a lowly habitation Deborah, the Prophetess. 
She " judged Israel ;" for the law of God at the 
priests' mouth had long ceased to have any weight, 
and the priests themselves seem to have become as 
degenerate as the people. An irregular ministry 
was then raised up of judges and prophets, and 
Jehovah was pleased to put honour upon instruments 
which the law had not at all recognised. At the 
divine command she sent for Barak, a man of Naph- 
tali, and commissioned him to gather ten thousand 
men out of his own tribe, and of his brethren of 
Zebulun, and to march to the banks of the Kishon ; 
engaging in the name of Jehovah, that Sisera and 
the mighty Canaanitish host should be delivered 
into his hand. 

Accompanied by the prophetess herself, without 
whom he refused to undertake the perilous enter- 
prise, Barak returned to his city, Kedesh, and blew 
his trumpet. Ten thousand men quickly responded 
to the call, though inadequately armed, and unused 
to resistance. " Zebulun and Naphtali were a people 
that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high 
places of the field," and thus became the instru- 
ments of national deliverance, and were honoured by 
approving mention in the inspired words of the Holy 
Spirit of God. With the eye of an able general, 
Barak discerned the strong position which Mount 
Tabor afforded his little band, and quickly entrenched 



306 THE RIVER KISHON. 

himself in its fastnesses, where the iron chariots of 
Canaan would be unavailing. But the battle that 
day was to be the Lord's ; and He saveth not with 
sword and spear, nor by skilful generalship, nor by 
the strength of military position, nor by the multi- 
tude of an host. The victory was to be obtained in 
the plain, where the immense host would have full 
room for their evolutions, and where the terrible 
iron chariots would have their utmost advantage, 
that thus the honour might redound wholly to 
Jehovah. So in spiritual things, " we have the 
treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of 
the power may be of God, and not of us." 

The redoubtable Sisera hears with mingled anger 
and contempt of the revolt, and draws his mighty 
army to the plain of Jezreel, not doubting that the 
feeble band will be surrounded and cut to pieces 
without the least difficulty, and that a fresh occasion 
will be given for enriching the oppressors with the 
spoil of the vanquished. The myriads of the Canaan- 
itish hosts almost cover the plain ; the measured 
tramp of the prancing cavalry resounds like distant 
thunder ; and the wheels of the mailed chariots cut 
the enamelled turf in a thousand lines. 

Deborah looks upon the swarming hosts, glittering 
in all the pomp and pride of martial array, and, as 
she gazes on the idolatrous ensigns waving in the 
breeze, she pronounces their doom in the name of 
the Lord God of Hosts. " Up !" she exclaims to 
Barak, " for this is the day in which Jehovah hath 
delivered Sisera into thine hand : — Is not Jehovah 
gone forth before thee '?" At once, without waiting 
for the assault, the faithful band pours down from 



SISERA AJSB HIS HOST. 307 

the wooded heights of Tabor, and rushes upon the 
Oanaanitish army. Panic-struck, the innumerable 
host wavers, yields, and flees in dismay ; " the stars 
in their courses fight against Sisera," for a violent 
tempest of rain and hail, beating full upon his army, 
increases the confusion. The soldiers, wild with 
terror, bury their swords in each other's hearts ; 
riderless horses are plunging madly over the plain, 
and the iron chariots are dashed the one against the 
other. The rout is complete. Thousands on thou- 
sands who have escaped the sword of Barak are 
fleeing across the plain, pushing with terrified energy 
to cross the Kishon. But, alas for them ! the tempest 
of rain and hail that smote the army has swollen the 
river, and its banks are full to the brim with a hoarse 
and turbid torrent, swiftly rushing to the sea. They 
have no time to deliberate ; behind them is pressing 
Barak's ten thousand, flushed with victory. No 
quarter is given ; the avenging steel falls without 
mercy, and fast mows down the terror-stricken 
throng. They plunge by thousands into the stream ; 
but the boiling waters sweep them away in many a 
furious eddy, and few of that mighty host succeed in 
reaching the opposite shore. 

The renowned Sisera himself relinquished the 
dangerous conspicuousness of his ornamented cha- 
riot, and fled away on foot. But he escaped the 
sword of Barak only to fall ignominiously by a 
woman's hand. The encampment of Heber, the 
Kenite, a descendant of the father-in-law of Moses, 
who had cast in his lot with the people of God, lay 
in his course ; and here the fainting general hoped 
to obtain refreshment and security. Heber seems 



808 THE RIVER KISHON. 

not to have been at home ; but his wife, Jael, ap- 
parently in perfect sincerity, proffered him the sanc- 
tuary of her own private tent. He gladly availed 
himself of the welcome hospitality, and, overcome 
with fatigue and chagrin, was soon fast asleep. 
Then, actuated by a divine impulse, obedience to 
which overcame all feminine fear and reluctance, 
and all the claims of hospitality, the pious Jael 
smote the enemy of God and of his people with one 
of the sharp iron tent-pins, and thus slew him. 

To attempt to justify the action of Jael by " the 
usages of ancient warfare, of rude times, and of fe- 
rocious manners," is most futile. There can be no 
doubt that in that age and country the act, if judged 
by common rules, would have been as abhorred as 
such an act would be now. But Jael's defence, nay, 
her glory, rests on very different principles. She 
was doubtless actuated by the Spirit of God, resist- 
ance to whom would have been grievous sin. It is 
unjust to impute to her an interested desire to win 
the favour of the victors ; and surely it is dishonour- 
ing to the Holy Ghost to call that, as some have done, 
a " treacherous and cruel murder," for which He has 
handed down her name, enshrined in his Sacred 
Word, as " Blessed above women." 

So, in the dreadful apostasy of the golden calf in 
the wilderness, when faithfulness to God required 
the execution of a severe justice, " every man upon 
his son, and every man upon his brother," the sons 
of Levi at once sacrificed all private affection, and 
inflicted the punishment. Thus that tribe " said 
unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen 
him ; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor 



Elijah's emergence. 309 

knew his own children," and obtained an eminent 
approval and blessing from the Spirit of God. And 
the Christian is often called to choose between obe- 
dience to God, and the gratification of natural affec- 
tion or the conventional usages of the world ; and if 
he prefer walking with God to " knowing any man 
after the flesh," he will often be condemned and 
vilified here. But it is a small thing to be judged of 
man's judgment : the approbation of Him who 
knows the secrets of the heart will more than make 
amends. Yet it is a matter of thankfulness that our 
testimony against evil, and our witness for God, are 
not, in the present dispensation, of the same bloody 
nature as they often were in former times. Our 
zeal should be manifested against the sins, and not 
against the persons of sinners, " Vengeance is mine ; 
— I will repay, saith the Lord." 



1 kings xvin. 



The banks of the rolling Kishon witnessed, ages 
afterwards, another example of holy but bloody 
service to God. It was the slaughter of Baal's 
prophets by Elijah. 

Three years and a half the servant of God had 
now lived in retirement, while the horrors of drought 
and famine were fulfilling the divine purposes of 
chastisement upon Israel. The brook Cherith, that 
for a long time had refreshed the lonely ravine, had 
at length dried up ; but God's care for his faithful 
servant had not failed. He had provided sustenance 



310 THE RIVER KISHON. 

in the house of a poor widow of Zidon, w T hose scanty 
pittance was miraculously increased to support her- 
self and her honoured guest. " A handful of meal 
in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse," were all that 
she possessed ; but for more than two years these 
continued to afford food to that household, until the 
Lord sent rain upon the earth. 

But, at length, Jehovah intimated to his servant 
that he was about to remove the terrible infliction 
which he had so long imposed on his sinning people. 
Neither Ahab nor his subjects seemed to have been 
at all softened by the chastisement ; they smarted 
and groaned under its severity, but cried not unto 
the Lord. Baal's prophets were still as numerous 
as ever ; and though all their sacrifices and incanta- 
tions could not avail to procure one drop of rain, the 
besotted people did not withdraw their allegiance 
from the mute and helpless idol. But, for the honour 
of his holy name, Jehovah determined to make a 
public trial of strength between himself and Baal, 
that by a palpable manifestation of his power, in 
signal contrast with the inanity of the idol, they 
might be persuaded to see the folly of their apostasy. 

Elijah leaves his retirement to show himself to 
Ahab, as cheerfully obedient to the command of 
God, as when, at the same word, he secluded himself 
from public notice. In the calm and holy elevation 
of communion with God, he confronts the wdcked 
king, and boldly charges upon him the guilt of the 
nation's sins. The monarch trembles under the 
prophet's frown, and dares not refuse the challenge 
which Jehovah throws down to the herd of Baal's 
prophets. All Israel must be gathered to Carmel, to 



Elijah's challenge. 311 

witness the great drama to be enacted on its sloping 
side ; for thither too must be dragged the unwilling 
servants of Baal, well knowing how hopeless is their 
cause, yet unable to evade or decline so fair a proposal. 

The assembly is gathered : the thousands of Israel 
are thronging the plain, gazing with eager upturned 
faces toward the green sides of Carmel, that rise 
before them like an immense amphitheatre. There, 
on the slope, stand with anxious countenances four 
hundred and fifty men in priestly robes, the prophets 
of Baal ; and at a little distance, alone, but serene 
and confident, stands Elijah in his hairy mantle. 
The Lord knows seven thousand secret faithful ones 
in Israel, who have not bowed the knee to Baal ; 
but not one had boldness to stand out as his witness ; 
and not one is found willing to take his place by 
Elijah's side in this day of decision. 

He comes forward and addresses the multitude ; 
and every sound is hushed as his solemn words fall 
upon their ears. He demands that they should make 
their election : " If Jehovah be God, follow him ; but if 
Baal, then follow him !" and then he thus enunciates 
the terms of the challenge. " I, even I only, remain 
a prophet of Jehovah ; but Baal's prophets are four 
hundred and fifty men. Let them therefore give 
us two bullocks ; and let them choose one for them- 
selves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and 
put no fire under : and I will dress the other bullock, 
and lay it on wood, and put no fire under. And 
call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on 
the name of Jehovah, and the God that answereth 
by fire, let Him be God." The justice of the pro- 
position is instantly acknowledged, and the shout 



312 THE RIVER KISHON. 

that at once ascends from the throng below, — " It is 
well spoken," convinces the reluctant devotees of 
Baal that they have no alternative, but to accept the 
challenge, or at once to confess the impotency and 
worthlessness of their idol. 

All day long the false prophets have been calling 
on their god with incessant vociferation. Maddened 
by the irony of Elijah, they have been leaping 
around and upon their altar, crying with frantic 
vehemence, " O Baal! hear us ! 55 Their bodies are 
covered with their own blood, from self-inflicted 
wounds, in the vain hope to propitiate their demon 
with suifering. But all in vain : there is no voice, 
nor any to answer, nor any that regards their cries. 
And now the sun approaches his bed in the western 
sea, which lies stretched out like a mirror of bur- 
nished brass to receive him ; when Elijah thinks it 
time to act his part. He calls the people to approach, 
that they may more distinctly witness what he is 
about to do. Then he takes twelve stones, and with 
them builds an altar to Jehovah ; thus recognising 
the unity of God's chosen people, the twelve tribes of 
Israel, notwithstanding the divisions and schisms 
that apostasy had made. Elijah has communion 
with the mind of God, and can still, in faith, regard 
all Israel as but one, overlooking the sinful breaches 
of unity, and having regard to the eternal purposes 
of grace, which have decreed that, by and by, " one 
king shall be king to them all ; and they shall be no 
more two nations, neither shall they be divided into 
two kingdoms any more at all. 55 * So now, the 
scribe instructed into the things of the kingdom of 

* Ezek. xxxvii. 22, 



THE EVENING SACRIFICE. 313 

heaven, cannot but regard the schisms and divisions 
of the Church of Christ as " carnal," remembering 
the dying prayer of Him .who gave his life for her 
" that they all ma/y he one." 

The people look on with wonder while the prophet 
digs a deep trench round about the altar which he 
has made ; but they quickly discern the reason for 
it. For when the bullock is slain, and laid on the 
wood, he commands the whole to be deluged with 
water, that no suspicion of concealed fire may be 
entertained. Vessels are quickly carried down to 
the Kishon's brink, filled, and emptied on the 
sacrifice, until not only the whole is saturated, but 
the trench itself is filled to the brim. 

The sun is setting : it is the moment when, in the 
magnificent temple at Jerusalem, the priests are 
offering the evening sacrifice ; and Elijah, whose act 
of worship is in full communion with theirs, draws 
near, and offers a solemn appeal to the God of Israel. 
In a moment the fire descends from heaven, con- 
sumes the sacrifice, the wood, even the very dust 
and the stones, and licks up the water that filled the 
trench. The whole of the mighty multitude fall 
prostrate on their faces, and, with self-abasement for 
their besotted infidelity, renounce their apostasy. 
" Jehovah, He is the God ! Jehovah, He is the God !" 
Evil must now be judged and put away, that the 
national reformation may be effectual. The wicked 
prophets of Baal, the teachers of apostasy, the 
seducers to idolatry, may not be permitted to escape ; 
the law had pronounced their doom to be death, 
and Elijah shrinks not from executing the sentence. 
The now penitent people are ready, in obedience to 

U 



314 THE RIVER KISHON. 

his command to take them; neither Ahab nor 
Jezebel dares to move a finger in their behalf : they 
are dragged from their untouched sacrifice to the 
brink of Kishon, and put to death ; and their bodies 
are hurled down on its rushing tide, to find a living 
grave in the maws of sea-monsters. 

There now remains no hindrance to the outpouring 
of the divine blessing. Idolatry has been publicly 
renounced, Baal put to an open shame, and the 
ringleaders in iniquity have received condign punish- 
ment. The curse of drought is now taken away, 
and before Ahab can reach Jezreel, the heavens are 
black with clouds and wind, and heavy rain refreshes 
once more the parched and barren earth. 

With how much truth and force might the appeal 
of Elijah be presented to thousands in this land ! 
" How long halt ye between two opinions ? If the 
Lord be God, follow Him ; but if Baal, then follow 
him !" How many there are who acknowledge the 
claims of God upon their souls 5 attention, whose 
hearts are yet set upon the world ! But, " if the 
Lord be God, follow Him l" He will not be content 
with a divided homage ; " My son ! give me thine 
heart !" is his language. If Jesus be the only 
Saviour, come to Him, cleave to Him, accept Him 
for time and for eternity, and abjure all dependence 
upon any other. " Ye cannot serve God and mam- 
mon," 



XIV. 

THE BEOOK OF ELAH. 



David and Goliath. — Wady es Sumt — The Acacia — The Terebinth 
— The Philistines — The Gigantic Champion — Faith — The Sling and 
Stone — The Death of the Giant — The Spiritual Conflict. 

1 SA3IUEL XVII. 

The valleys, or wadys, of the hilly parts of Palestine 
frequently receive in their course other tributary 
wadys ; each of which is perhaps formed by the con- 
fluence of several smaller ones. And as each is the 
bed of a torrent during the rainy season, the rivu- 
lets, uniting, continually augment the size and volume 
of the stream, in proportion to the number of tribu- 
tary wadys that have united. One of the vales thus 
opening into the Wady Surar, the ancient Valley 
of Sorek, is the Wady es Sumt, or the valley of the 
Acacia-tree, which is itself formed by the junction of 
three others, viz. Wady el Musiirr, from the east, 
Wady es Sur, a large valley from the south, and a 
small one, unnamed, from the north. The name 
of the valley, so formed, is derived from the pre- 
valence of the thorny tree that produces the gum- 
arabic, (Acacia Arabica^) a great number of which 
grow in the western part. This is a moderately 



316 THE BROOK OF ELAH. 

sized tree, with peculiarly elegant leaves, composed 
of many pairs of shining leaflets. The bases of the 
branches are armed with strong sharp thorns that 
grow in pairs. The flowers are like little golden 
balls, hanging gracefully among the leaves in threes, 
and giving forth a fragrant perfume. Like other 
trees that produce tasteless gums, the bark is highly 
austere and astringent to the taste. The gum- 
arabic is procured by wounding the bark, or by 
natural exudation ; the sap flows out and hardens in 
transparent lumps, very similar to that of our cherry- 
tree. It is eaten throughout the east, especially by 
those who traverse the deserts, as it contains much 
nutriment in very small bulk. The timber of this 
tree is supposed to have been the u Shittim-wood," 
which was so largely used in the construction of the 
tabernacle and its furniture. 

The bottom of the valley is a fine fertile plain, 
with moderate hills on each side ; it is covered with 
fields of grain, except where the acacia^groves are 
found ; and the hill-sides are clothed with thriving 
olive plantations, in which the trees are planted in 
regular rows like an orchard. This valuable tree is 
extensively cultivated in this part of the country, to 
which the numerous groves impart quite a wooded 
appearance. 

The road from Askelon to Jerusalem anciently 
passed through the head of this wady ; but it is now 
scarcely ever trodden by European feet. Professor 
Robinson visited it, and mentions the primitive sim- 
plicity and hospitality that remain among the inhabi- 
tants, not yet spoiled by intercourse with foreigners. 

This eminent biblical geographer considers the 



VALLEY OF ELAH. 317 

Wady es Sumt to be the ancient valley of Elah, 
in which David slew the giant Goliath. The 
word Elah signifies the terebinth-tree, the ~butm 
of the modem Arabs ; and this appellation was 
probably given to it from some remarkable tree of 
this species, as its present name expresses the abun- 
dance of trees of another kind. It is interesting 
to remark, that the largest terebinth seen by Pro- 
fessor Robinson, in all Palestine, was an immense tree, 
still standing in the Wady es Sur, a little above the 
point where it opens into the Wady es Sumt. Through 
the bottom runs, in winter, " the brook," out of 
which the shepherd youth chose the five smooth 
stones for his weapons ; just such pebbles as might 
now be picked up from its bed, rolled by the action 
of the torrent. About the middle of May the Ame- 
rican travellers found it dry. 

In the early history of Israel as a nation, their 
most indomitable, persevering and successful enemies 
were the Philistines. The reign of Saul was almost 
a continual conflict with these foes, in which they 
appear generally to have maintained the upper hand. 
At his accession, the southern portion of the land 
was commanded by their garrisons, and after a reign 
of forty years, he met his death on the field of 
battle in the moment of their victory. 

But Israel too had some brilliant successes, won 
not so much by valour or numbers, as by the living 
faith, which laid hold on Jehovah as the rightful 
King of the nation, and brought in his Almighty 
power to the conflict. Whenever this can be done 
victory is sure, no matter how many, how subtle, or 
how strong the adversaries who oppose us. 



318 THE BROOK OF ELAH. 

On one occasion the hostile armies were encamped 
on the two opposite hills that overlooked the little 
Valley of Elah. Frequent skirmishes had occurred, 
but neither party seemed inclined to venture on a 
decisive engagement. According to a custom not 
uncommon in ancient warfare, when victory often 
depended on the personal strength and prowess of 
the combatants, a champion had presented himself 
from the Philistine army, offering to decide the 
battle by single combat with any opponent that the 
Israelitish army might afford. This challenger was 
of the ancient race of the Rephaim, and was of 
gigantic size and strength, being, according to the 
most moderate computation, upw T arcls of ten feet 
high, while the weight of his coat of mail, (5,000 
shekels of brass, or about 156 lbs.) proved his 
strength to be proportionate to his bulk. Besides 
this, he wore a helmet of brass, probably of that 
curious and not inelegant form with which we see 
Philistine warriors depicted in the ancient Egyptian 
paintings, representing a circlet of feathers with the 
points slightly curved outwards. He wore also a 
gorget of brass between his shoulders, and greaves 
of the same metal upon his legs. His spear-staff 
was " like a weaver's beam," and the iron head of 
his spear weighed nearly twenty pounds. With such 
endowments of nature and art, it is no wonder that 
the uncircumcised idolater should consider himself 
invincible, and defy the armies of Israel, who were, 
however, in truth, " the armies of the living God," 
though he saw in them only " servants to Saul." 

Faith, and that courage which arises from a recog- 
nition of God's protecting power, were at a low ebb 



DAVID AND GOLIATH. 319 

in Israel, and hence, for forty days, the challenge of 
this haughty blasphemer filled the whole host with 
dismay, none venturing to meet him in the field. 
But at length, the son of Jesse, though but a strip- 
ling of smooth and ruddy countenance, being on a 
casual visit to the army, felt his spirit stirred, and 
his sense of Israel's shame aroused, as he listened to 
the reproaches of the proud Philistine. " Who," he 
asked, "is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he 
should defy the armies of the living God ?" 

Strong in that his might, the faithful youth put 
his life in his hand, and boldlv ventured forth to 
meet the arrogant challenger. Saul would have 
arrayed him in his own armour, but David's trust- 
was not in this, and he rejected it. He would show 
the whole assembled hosts that " Jehovah saveth not 
with sword and spear, for the battle is Jehovah's ;" 
and therefore he goes down into the vale unarmed, 
except with a shepherd's staff and a sling. Five 
smooth stones he chooses out of the gurgling brook 
that trickles through the bottom, which he puts into 
a little bag ; and this is all the armour, offensive or 
defensive, that he takes. 

The giant stalks on in all the pride of strength, 
and looks about for his foe. He cannot believe that 
the fair boy he sees before him can seriously intend 
to engage in the combat ; and with a laugh of con 
tempt at an opponent armed with a staff, he curses 
David by his gods. The answer of the youthful hero 
is replete with humility, faith, zeal for God's glory, 
and the honour of Israel. He declares his undoubt- 
ing assurance that he shall be successful, glories in 
his own mean appearance, that the honour may be 



320 THE BROOK OF ELAH. 

entirely the Lord's, and predicts that the result of 
the combat will be the spread of Jehovah's fame in 

the earth. 

The combatants approach ; the haughty giant 
seizes his weapons from his attendant, and strides 
forward. David runs to meet him, and when he has 
come near, he takes one of his smooth stones from 
his bag, and slings it with so true an aim, and with 
such force, that the missile, striking the Gittite's 
broad forehead, penetrates bone and brain ; and his 
huge form falls prostrate on the earth. 

Thus the feeblest believer in Jesus may fearlessly 
meet in conflict the principalities, and powers, and 
spiritual wickednesses that are opposed to him, and 
that gigantic one who is Prince of them all. Proudly 
indeed he wages the war, threatening is his de- 
meanour, bold his assaults, and terrible his weapons ; 
but a babe in Christ needs not fear him, trusting not 
in carnal weapons, but in the strength of the Lord 
of Hosts, against whom the blasphemous assaults of 
the adversary are truly pointed. Jesus has conquered 
him on his own ground ; He went down into the 
domains of death, that He might destroy him that 
had the power of death ; He beheld Satan as light- 
ning fall from heaven, and He has given to all his 
redeemed people to trample under foot " all the 
power of the enemy.' 5 May we then ever meet him, 
assured that with such apparently inadequate arms 
as a word out of the book of God, a mere stone from 
a shepherd's scrip, we shall be able in the power of 
the Holy Spirit to overcome him, and lay him low. 



XV. 

THE BKOOK ESHCOL. 



The Israelitish Spies. — Uncertain Locality — Valley near Hebron 
— Sorek — The Search — Jericho — Lake of Gennesaret — Lebanon — 
Galilee — Samaria — Fruitful ness of Judah — Vines — Magnitude of 
Grapes and Clusters — The Specimen — Modern Testimony — Culture 
of the Vine. 

NUMBERS XVII. 

Considerable uncertainty rests upon the situation 
of the fertile valley, from which the spies took their 
enormous cluster of grapes. Very general tradition, 
both Jewish and early Christian, has placed it in the 
vicinity of Hebron. The name of one of Abram's 
Amoritish friends was Eshcol, who lived at the 
Terebinth of Mamre, at Hebron ; and it has been 
concluded that the beautiful vale received its name 
from him. But the Word of God expressly states 
that the place was called the Brook Eshcol (which 
signifies a .cluster of grapes), because of the cluster 
which the children of Israel cut down from thence. 

The valley to which we allude stretches away 
towards the northwest from Hebron, and the high- 
road from that city to Jerusalem passes through it. 
The pathway is paved with large uneven stones, like 
the roads in the Swiss mountains ; it is bounded by 
vineyards of the greatest luxuriance, and in a high 

14* 



322 THE BROOK ESHCOL. 

state of cultivation, well guarded by good stone 
fences : the soil is rich and abundant. These vine- 
yards produce the best grapes in the whole country. 
Nor is the fruitfulness of this valley confined to the 
"choice" and "noble" vine ; pomegranates and figs as 
well as apricots and quinces grow there in abundance ; 
and the terraced slopes on either side are crowned 
with groves of the graceful and glistening olive. 

Others have supposed the Brook Eshcol to have 
been a tributary of the Sorek ; or else that Sorek 
was the distinguishing name of the valley, and 
Eshcol that of the brook that flowed through it. 
This opinion derives considerable weight from the 
circumstance that the word Sorek signifies the 
choicest kind of vine ; and that this region enjoyed 
a celebrity for the excellence of its wine ; for the 
" wine of Sorek " of the Scriptures, was probably 
the same as that of which the classic writers make 
honourable mention by the name of u the wine of 
Askelon." 

The interesting story connected with the valley, is 
the following. After nearly twelve months' residence 
in the vicinity of Sinai, where they received the 
Law, the Children of Israel spent about five months 
in journeying from Mount Horeb to Kadesh Barnea, 
the southern border of Palestine. Here twelve men 
were selected to spy out the land, that they might 
bring a report of its character and condition. The 
office of a spy was, in ancient times, not considered 
dishonourable, and, being one attended with danger, 
and requiring courage, skill, watchfulness, prudence 
and self-denial, was often undertaken by officers of 
rank. The Hebrew spies were all of them princes, one 



FRUITFULNESS OF JUDAH. 6"S6 

from each tribe ; who, having received from Moses 
instructions on the points to which their attention 
should mainly be directed, entered on their search. 

The season was the latter part of summer, for the 
" time of the first ripe grapes," at which the spies 
set out on their journey, answers to the month of 
August. They traversed the whole length of the 
land, probably first stretching away to the Jordan, 
and proceeding northward near the course of that 
river. Here they would see the rich and fertile 
plain of Jericho, with its groves of beauteous palm- 
trees, and its fragrant balsams. They would see the 
charming expanse of the Lake of Gennesaret, sleeping 
in mirror-like brightness among the mountains. 
They would climb the rugged sides of Hermon and 
Lebanon ; would gaze with curiosity, not unmixed 
with awe, on the snow that capped their lofty summits ; 
and would admire the forests of mighty cedars that 
fringed their sides, and filled their valleys — a sight 
whose grandeur the scarcity of timber in Egypt and 
the Desert, and even in the south of Palestine, would 
enable them to appreciate. 

Returning, they would enjoy the striking and ever- 
changing scenery of the mountainous Galilee, with 
its mulberry groves and forests of oaks ; and would 
cross the mighty plain of Jezreel, a sea of waving 
corn. The wheat and the barley, indeed, would have 
been mostly gathered in, but the tall maize, and 
the dourra, and the bearded millet still awaited the 
sickle ; and in the neighbourhood of the lakes and 
low-lying rivers, plantations of rice were beginning 
to cover large tracts with a refreshing verdure. Tabor, 
like a huge cone of vegetation, would rise before 



324 THE BROOK ESHCOL. 

them, and the glorious Oarmel with its crown of 
flowers. The grassy undulations of what, long after- 
wards, was the country of Samaria, the pastures of 
Sharon, and the plains of the coast, with the num- 
berless little rills that everywhere then watered that 
"land of brooks," would be carefully noticed by 
men, whose " occupation was that of shepherds." 
But when they came again to the hill-country of the 
south, they would surely linger awhile there to ex- 
plore its fruitful riches. The fruits which attained 
unrivalled excellence in Palestine were now T just 
come to maturity, and this was the region where they 
grew in the most rich luxuriance. Orchards of 
apples and pears were laden with their russet fruit, 
the juicy hardness of which would be an agreeable 
novelty to men acquainted with none but tropical 
productions. Different kinds of plums, peaches, 
nectarines, and apricots, hung clustering in glowing 
beauty and fragrance. The scarlet blossoms of the 
pomegranates had given place to the ruddy-brown 
fruit ; and wide-spreading sycamores were hung with 
bunches of the luscious figs. The groves of olives 
sheeting the slopes of the hills, were filled by the 
laughing peasants, beating the trees and collecting 
the valuable produce ; and the spies would doubtless 
admire the changing play of light from the slender 
leaves, as the agitation continually brought to view 
the varied surfaces, the dark green of their upper 
sides contrasting with the silvery grey of the lower. 
But the extraordinary abundance of the vines, the 
number and magnitude of the ponderous clusters, 
the size and flavour of the grapes, excited their 
admiring wonder above all ; and they determined to 



r 



GRAPES OF PALESTINE. 325 

carry back to their brethren a specimen cluster, that 
they might see with their own eyes the goodness of 
the land. By the Brook of Eshcol they cut down a 
single cluster of great size ; and in order that the 
transportation might be effected without injury to 
the mellow fruit, as well as on account of its great 
weight, they bore it suspended from a staff, between 
two men ; and brought it in safety, together with 
other fruits, to their expecting brethren. 

Into the other circumstances that attended their 
return, — the unbelieving fear, which, in the hearts of 
most of their number, had so magnified the power of 
the Canaanites as to counteract the effect of the ex- 
cellence of the land, and its sad results in murmuring 
and rebellion, — we have not space to enter. But we 
will adduce a few testimonies to show that the exu- 
berant fruitfulness that then marked " the glory of 
all lands," has not yet wholly departed, though the 
clime and the soil are withering under the righteous 
frown of Jehovah. 

Dandini, an Italian traveller, observes that the 
grapes of Lebanon are as large as prunes ; and Doub- 
dan writes, that in travelling near Bethlehem, he 
found a most delightful valley, full of aromatic herbs 
and roses, and planted with vines of the choicest 
kind. It was not the time of the vintage, but the 
inhabitants assured him that they occasionally found 
clusters weighing ten or twelve pounds. This valley 
must have been near, if not identical with that 
commonly considered to be the ancient Eshcol. 
Reland was assured by a merchant who had resided 
many years in the same neighbourhood that he had 
seen bunches weighing ten pounds. Nau affirms that 
he had seen near Hebron grapes as large as a man's 



326 



THE BROOK ESHCOL. 



thumb ; and, as to the clusters, some he had seen in 
Syria weighed ten or twelve pounds ; and he had 
heard in the Archipelago of some weighing thirty or 
forty pounds. Neitzchutz declares that he could 
with truth say, that in the mountains of Israel he 
had seen and partaken of bunches that were half an 
ell long, the grapes of which were two joints of a 
finger in length. The accompanying engraving from 
Laborde, gives the exact size of some seen by him. 




Grapes of Palestine. 

Sir Moses Montefiore obtained near Hebron a 
bunch of grapes about a yard in length. 

Even in England we have had evidence of the 
same kind. A bunch of Syrian grapes was grown at 
Welbeck which weighed nineteen pounds. It was 
sent as a present from the Duke of Portland to the 
Marquis of Rockingham ; and was carried to its 
destination, a distance of twenty miles, on a staff, by 
four labourers, two bearing it in rotation. This 
cluster was nineteen inches and a half in diameter ; 



CULTURE OF THE VINE. 327 

four feet six inches in circumference ; and nearly 
twenty-three inches in length. 

The mode of cultivating the vine varies much in 
different countries. With us it is " suffered to expand 
itself to any size, and nailed in regular lines to the 
wall, or to the frame of a green-house ; thus a single 
tree will produce several hundred-weight of grapes. 
On the banks of the Rhine the growth is limited to 
three feet in height, and each tree is supported in an 
upright position. In France it is formed into arches 
and ornamental alcoves. In Sardinia it assumes 
the aspect of a parasitical plant, luxuriating among 
the branches of the largest forest-trees, and clasping 
with its tendrils the extreme twigs. In Asia Minor 
its wild festoons hang their green and purple pendants 
from rural bowers of trellis-work. On the heights of 
Lebanon it lies in a state of humiliation, covering the . 
ground like the cucumber, and subsequently we saw 
it, in the valley of Eshcol, in a position different from 
all that have been named. There three vines are 
planted close together, and cut off at the height of 
five feet in the apex of a cone formed by their stems ; 
where, being tied, each is supported by two others, 
and thus enabled to sustain the prodigious clusters 
for which that region has always been famous ; 
clusters so large, that, to carry one, the spies of 
Moses were compelled to place it on a stick borne by 
two men. Each mode is doubtless the best that 
could be adopted in the quarter where it prevails, 
considering the nature of the soil and climate, the 
value of the land, and the object of the cultivation."* 

* Eliot's Travels. 



XVI. 

THE BEOOK BESOR 



Topography. — The River of Egypt — The Desert — The Wild Ass — 
Cultivation — Paths — Trees — Gaza — Wady Sheriah. 

David's Chastisement. — God's Anointed King — The Outcast — The 
Trial of Faith and Patience — Grace — Temptation — Failure — Guile 
and Falsehood — A Dilemma — Philistine Jealousy — The Sack of 
Ziklag — Refuge in God — Return to Ordinances — Urim and Thum- 
mim — The Ephod — Our High Priest — The Oracle — The Pursuit — 
The Dying Egyptian — The Rioting Banditti — The Recovery of all 
— Abundant Spoil — Grace abounding — Participation of Blessing. 

Gerak. — The Philistines — Their Origin and Character — High Civili- 
zation — Affinity with the Egyptians — Freedom from Idolatry — 
Abraham's Unbelief and Prevarication — Veils — Jehovah's Faithful- 
ness — Isaac's Failure — The Valley of Gerar-- Wells conferring 
property in Land — Names of Wells — Selfishness and Concession — 
— Conclusion. 

1 SAMUEL XXX. 

As the^traveller ^pursues his weary way from Egypt 
to Palestine, lie crosses the broad channel of a river, 
bounded still by its well-marked banks, but destitute 
of water. When the rivers of Judah flowed with 
water, this was the southern boundary of the coun- 
try, dividing it from the land of Ham, and hence it 
is often alluded to as the River of Egypt. On one 



n THE RIVER OF EGYPT. 329 

f 
'A 

side is a parched desert of sand, spotted here and 
there with little verdant patches, where a few bushes 
and palm-trees grow, and flowers show their smiling 
faces to the scorching rays of the sun that pour down 
as if from a glowing furnace ; but, in general, drear j, 
waste and bare, with nothing to relieve the eye, 
almost blinded by the glare of the white sand, but 
occasional heaps of stones, that tell of ruin and 
desolation. Here and there the flat sands are 
covered with an incrustation of fine salt, the very 
symbol of barrenness. The wild ass, whose " house " 
God has " made the wilderness, and the barren land 
{Heb. the salt places) his dwellings," here ranges, 
far from the haunts of men, " searching after every 
green thing." 

On the eastern side of this ancient channel, once 
a considerable river, since it is not less than six hun- 
dred feet in breadth, the country changes. Low 
sand hills, running in ranges parallel to the shore of 
the Mediterranean, which is close at hand, for a 
while struggle for supremacy with the increasing 
verdure of grassy slopes and eminences, and with 
advancing cultivation. Fields of wheat and barley 
bow in yellow waves to the pleasant breeze, and 
these are interspersed with green patches of lentiles, 
or of the tall and vigorous tobacco-plant, with its 
large leaves, and delicate pink blossoms ; a favourite 
crop with the present Mohammedan occupants. 
Flocks of sheep and goats are seen scattered over the 
undulating hills, feeding on the long grass, which 
nearly conceals them, and browsing on the aromatic 
shrubs ; with now and then a herd of asses, and, more 
rarely, of horned cattle. In some places the soil is 



330 THE BROOK BESOK. 

being turned up by the rude and light plough, drawn 
by oxen, and the fields, not divided by^hedges or 
walls, have their boundaries marked only by bunches 
of broom hung up on stakes at intervals, Over the 
undulating plains the high road is formed of many 
paths running side by side, but continually merging 
the one into the other ; for it is made by the feet of 
the animals that travel it, which follow each other ; 
and not, as with us, by a general levelling of the whole 
width of the road. In the spring, the turf inter- 
sected by these many paths is gaily enamelled with 
flowers, " among which our garden-pink assumes the 
place of daisies." Many ancient sycamores, with 
twisted roots, and gnarled and knotty trunks, spread 
out their broad flat heads of foliage towards the 
rising sun, like huge umbrellas, inviting the weary 
traveller to pitch his tent beneath their refreshing 
shadow, or at least, to snatch a few minutes' relief 
from the fierce unclouded glare of the sun. The 
ever-green, and almost ever-living, terebinth is now 
and then seen, with its empurpled foliage, flowers, 
and fruit ; but trees are now scarce, for the curse of 
barrenness is fallen upon the land of Israel. The 
wide expanse of the Mediterranean, u the Great 
Sea," lies sleeping along the horizon on the left, 
beneath the descending sun ; and to the right, far 
inland, the prospect is bounded by mountains rising 
into uneven peaks, the hill-country of Judah. 

Fifty miles of journeying through such a country 
as this brings the traveller to Gaza, an ancient city 
of the Philistines, situated on a little hill, and sur- 
rounded by gardens fenced with impenetrable hedges 
of prickly-pear, and embosomed in orchards and 



god's anointed king. 331 

groves of apricots, mulberries, figs, and sycamores. 
But a few miles before lie reaches this remnant of an- 
tiquity, he has had to cross the dry beds of two' or 
three other torrents, the principal of which is called 
by the Arabs "Wady Sheriah. It is about thirty yards 
wide, enclosed between high steep banks, through 
which, in winter, the accumulated rains pour a muddy 
torrent to the sea ; but these, early in spring, dwindle 
to insulated stagnant pools, and soon dry away. Yet 
its deeply ploughed course remains indelible, and 
can be distinctly traced from the neighbouring 
eminences, winding far away inland towards its 
source in the distant hills of Judah. This is sup- 
posed to be the Brook Besor, the scene of incidents 
fraught with interest and instruction in the memor- 
able history of " the sweet Psalmist of Israel." 

David had been anointed, by divine command, 
king over Israel ; he was God's chosen king ; but 
another king was actually on the throne, man's 
chosen, the son of Kish. It was not God's purpose 
at once to confer upon the man of his choice the 
actual administration of the kingdom ; He had secured 
it to him by promise, and now left him for many 
years to live by faith in the unchangeableness of 
Jehovah, while the rebellious king was suffered to 
take his own downward course to sin and ruin. Like 
the true Anointed and Beloved One, the Christ of 
God, of whom David was a type, he remained, in the * 
mysterious purposes of God, long excluded from the 
throne,, which was his by right, by him who was a 
type and representation of the " Prince of this 
world ;" while one after another, whose hearts God 
had touched, went down to him, owning him in his 



332 THE BROOK BESOR. 

humiliation and rejection, and joining their fortunes 
with his, in faith upon the security of the divine 
promises, and in hope of sharing the honour and 
joy of Hie kingdom at the appointed time of exal- 
tation. 

Long time the Son of Jesse maintained his confi- 
dence unshaken in Jehovah ; hunted to and fro 
" like a partridge in the mountains," watched and 
waylaid, driven from one fastness and stronghold to 
another, pursued by his cruel and implacable perse- 
cutor with a most persevering thirst for his life, he 
yet strengthened himself upon the Lord his God, 
and still looked forward to brighter days to come. It 
was a time of sore trial, a severe discipline in which 
he was learning in God's school how to rule His 
people Israel ; but it was a time of profit to his soul ; 
many of the sweetest psalms were penned during 
these " Sittings " and hair-breadth escapes, and they 
breathe the deepest communion with God, such as 
the saints in all ages have panted to enjoy. Yet, 
while there is thus revealed to us the habitual sense 
of God's love and care which David enjoyed, they 
continually show also the bitterness of the trial 
which he was enduring ; cut off from the ordinances 
of the sanctuary, and shut out from the congregation 
— subject to calumnies and reproaches, and liable to 
hear even the faithfulness of Jehovah impugned, he 
often mourns in pathetic terms his sorrowful lot, and 
comforts himself only with the remembrance of the 
unfailing love and sympathy of his God. "Thou 
tellest my v/anderings ; thou puttest my tears into 
thy bottle ; are they not in thy book ?" 

A beautiful example of meekness, and of that 



THE OUTCAST. 333 

grace which returns good for evil, and blessing for 
cursing, is afforded by David while thus hunted for 
life. Twice was Saul completely in his power, and 
he might, without the least danger to himself, have 
ended in a moment his perils and his sufferings, 
by cutting off his bitter foe, who alone stood between 
him and his rightful throne. But it was no part of 
David's duty to avenge his own cause, or to compass 
the death of even a wicked king ; he was content to 
wait until God's time was come, though he knew not 
how many more years of painful trial might thus be 
allotted him. Thus the Lord Jesus, " when he was 
reviled, reviled not again ; when he suffered, he 
threatened not, but committed himself to Him that 
judgeth righteously ;" and thus too he is well con- 
tent to wait for the assumption of his kingdom, till 
the Father's time is come, " expecting, till his 
enemies be made his footstool." 

But we in vain look to the type for the perfection 
of the Antitype. The faith, and patience, and suffer- 
ing grace of Jesus never failed, but those of the son 
of Jesse gave way under the trial. In an hour of 
temptation he forgot the promises of the Living God, 
and gave utterance to the desponding thought, " I 
shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul !" 
Instead of rebutting the suggestion as from the 
father of lies, and staying himself upon the tried 
faithfulness of Jehovah, he parleyed with the tempter, 
and the " thought of foolishness " soon brought forth 
its fruits of actual sin. He had an infallible coun- 
sellor with him, who would have given him wise and 
unerring advice if he had asked it ; for the High 
Priest, Abiathar, was there, with whom was deposited 



334 THE BROOK BESOR. 

the Oracle of Jehovah, the mysterious Urim and 
Thummim. But David forgot to inquire of God, 
and taking counsel only of his unbelieving fears, and 
worldly prudence, he resolved to seek protection 
among the enemies of his country and his God, and 
to cast himself upon the king of the Philistines. 

The Gittite monarch received him kindly, and 
assigned to his distinguished guest the little city of 
Ziklag, situate not far from the brook Besor, a town 
which had formerly belonged to the tribe of Simeon, 
but had been captured by the Philistines in some of 
the frequent wars, and now came into the possession 
of Judah, by this royal gift to David. Here it would 
seem at first as if a great change for the better had 
occurred in the circumstances of the Hebrew band, 
for they were now delivered from the pressing danger, 
and provided with a fortified town, in which they 
might dwell in security. But sin always leads to 
sorrow, and though the child of God is delivered 
through grace from the punishment due to sin here- 
after, yet God is a jealous God, and will not suffer 
his saints to abuse his grace, nor to continue to 
walk contrary to Him, without exercising towards 
them his fatherly discipline. Thus David found it. 

One sin naturally leads to another. The son of 
Jesse must now ingratiate himself with Achish, whose 
interests are diametrically opposed to those of Israel ; 
hence a course of deceitfulness, if not of lying, is 
begun, in which the " man after God's own heart " 
becomes an object of our sorrow and pity. He makes 
an inroad upon the nations that lie to the south of 
the land — the Amalekites and allied tribes — and 
puts to the sword without distinction all who fall 



UNBELIEF. 335 

into his hands. In this we will not say he was 
wrong, for Israel had been solemnly and expressly 
commanded to " blot out the remembrance of Amalek 
from tinder heaven," and Saul's failure to execute 
this commission which had been entrusted to him, 
had been the occasion of the Lord's rejecting his 
kingship, and choosing the son of Jesse. But surely 
the guile which represented the expedition as having 
been against his own people, was not only dis- 
honoring to God, to whom lying lips are an abomi- 
nation, but dishonoring to himself also, as putting 
him in the position of a renegade, a traitor, and an 
enemy to the chosen people of Jehovah. 

Well, the ready falsehood extricated this Israelite, 
in whom there ought to have been no guile, from 
that difficulty ; but soon a more formidable one 
presents itself ; for Achish is summoning his armies 
to a grand assault upon Israel, and counts with con- 
fidence upon the assistance of David and his band, 
who have so vaunted their exploits against what 
might be reasonably considered the common enemy. 
Here is a dilemma ! If he promise the expected aid, 
and then fail of performance, or go over to the ranks 
of Israel, what treachery and ingratitude will mark 
his conduct ! If he be found in the ranks of the 
Philistines, making common cause with them against 
his brethren, helping to bring the people of Jehovah 
under the yoke of the idolaters — what a position is 
this for God's anointed king ! Oh ! what difficulties 
and dangers do they plunge themselves into, who 
endeavour to get rid of trial by turning aside into 
the apparently smooth and flowery paths of sin ! In 
such circumstances, afar from God, the erring saint 



% 



836 THE BROOK BESOR. 

would only become more and more deeply involved 
in difficulty and sin, if the Lord's own gracious 
hand, ever stretched forth in watchful love, did not 
often cut the knot, and lead him back again into 
uprightness by a way he had not anticipated. 

The natural jealousy of the Philistine lords be- 
comes the channel of help to the distressed David ; 
and the distrusted stranger is sent back to his own 
town. * But his heart is not yet humbled ; the 
plausibfefalsehood is still maintained ; and though 
glad in his inmost soul of the relief, he affects great 
indignatioA at not being permitted to " go to fight 
against the enemies of his lord the king." Ah ! his 
safety was dearly bought, at the price of his sincerity; 
and far more happy, as well as more worthy of our 
admiration, was the noble-minded fugitive in the 
caves and rocks of the wild goats, than the insincere 
sycophant in the court of Gath. 

Jehovah had extricated his erring servant from the 
distressing dilemma in which he had placed himself, 
not suffering a public disgrace to come upon him, 
either before Israel or the Philistines. But he must 
be rebuked and humbled, that he may recover him- 
self out of the snare into which he is fallen ; and 
for this, as continuance in sin has hardened his heart 
and blunted his conscience, a severe stroke is neces- 
sary. He comes with his six hundred men to Ziklag, 
expecting to enjoy the comforts and amenities of 
home ; each man is anticipating the welcome words 
and affectionate caresses of his wife and children, 
and perhaps hoping to spend a little season in rest, 
and relaxation from the fatigues of martial enterprise. 
They approach the familiar spot, after a three days' 



THE SACK OF ZIKLAG. 337 

tedious march beneath the torrid sun ; but an unusual 
and unnatural silence and solitude prevail. "Where 
are the flocks and herds that ought to be grazing on 
these hill sides ? Where are the shepherds whose 
viols were wont to be heard beneath the shade of 
these sycamores ? Why do the ploughs lie idly in 
these half-ploughed fields, forsaken of man and 
beast? No barking of household » dogs is heard, 
no busy hum of many voices, no merry laugh of 
childhood conies over the hill from the town ; all is 
still as death. They press on with palpitating hearts ; 
the foremost are on the summit of yonder intervening 
eminence, when suddenly they stop, recoil with terror, 
and send up to heaven a cry — a wail of anguish. The 
town is beneath them, but it is a heap of ruins : the 
red embers are yet lying in the half-fallen houses, 
and thin columns of smoke ascend from many a 
smouldering roof. Not a sign of life is there ; nor 
can their search discover any living soul to tell the 
dismal tale. Some comfort, however, is found in 
the fact that no traces of blood are seen, no ghastly 
corpses, no half-consumed bodies, not even a blackened 
bone can be found ; but all— wives, sons, daughters, 
servants, flocks, herds — all are gone into captivity. 

This was a stunning stroke indeed ! For a time 
the voice of bitter lamentation ascended. " David 
and the people that were with him lifted up their 
voice and wept, until they had no more power to 
weep." Then sorrow began to yield to thoughts of 
revenge; and as the unknown enemy was beyond 
their reach, they angrily began to vent their rage on 
their commander, to whose imprudence they not 
unreasonably attributed their irreparable loss ; and 

15 



338 THE BE00K BESOR. 

dark hints were already muttered of stoning him. 
But the lesson had been learned : David recognised 
the hand of his offended God, and bowed with sub- 
mission to the stroke. He " encouraged himself in 
the Lord his God !" 

It is the precious privilege of the child of God that 
he can find in his Father's bosom a refuge from 
trouble, not only when the trouble comes upon him 
in the path of duty, but when it is the result of his 
own failure. It is comparatively easy to a saint to 
" encourage himself in the Lord his God," when 
tribulation, persecution, the loss of comforts, of 
goods, of liberty, and even of life, are brought on by 
his faithfulness to his Lord. He naturally then 
looks up for Divine consolation : but it is equally his 
privilege, though much more difficult to be exercised, 
to flee away from the consequences of his own trans- 
gression, and take refuge in God's love. Yes ! to 
take refuge even from the chastisements of his 
Father's hand, in the sympathy of his Father's 
heart ! But only he can do this, who, like David, 
notwithstanding the darkening cloud, knows well, by 
sweet experience, that " God is love." 

The immediate fruit of this severe, but wholesome, 
discipline was manifested in David, by his return to 
the ordinances of God which he had sinfully neg- 
lected. If he had inquired of the Lord, when he 
proposed to go down to Achish, he would certainly 
have been preserved from the entangling and defiling 
paths into which he had been lately led, and he would 
have been spared the painful bereavement which had 
just befallen him. Now, however, he will no more trust 
his own wisdom, but seek his divine Counsellor. 






UEIM AND THUMMIM. 339 

From that dreadful slaughter of the priests at Nob, 
when Saul " slew in one day fourscore and five persons 
that did wear a linen ephod," Abiathar, the son of 
the high-priest, had escaped, and he now exercised 
the functions of that sacred office. One of those 
functions was to deliver a solemn oracle from Jeho- 
vah to any inquiring worshipper. It was called " the 
judgment of Urim and Thummim," terms considered. 
as implying illumination and perfection, and could 
only be delivered by the High Priest, when arrayed 
in his holy garments of glory and beauty. That 
portion of the priestly dress which was more im- 
mediately connected with the oracular judgment, was 
the Ephod of gold. It seems to have been a short 
coat or apron, without sleeves, formed of the most 
costly materials ; a sort of rich brocade, made of 
linen and golden thread interwoven, and gorgeously 
embroidered with blue, and purple, and scarlet. On 
the straps, or shoulder-pieces, by which it was sus- 
pended, w^ere fixed two large onyx-stones, on each of 
which were graven the names of six of the tribes of 
Israel. A magnificent breast-plate was worn in 
front, called, from its use, the breastplate of judg- 
ment. It was a doubled piece of the same rich 
cloth as the ephod, about nine inches square, fastened 
with rings and chains of gold to that garment. In 
it were set twelve precious stones, in four rows, all of 
them different, and each graven with the name of 
one of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. 
Thus the high-priest, whenever he went into the 
holiest of all, where Jehovah dwelt in visible glory, 
bore on his shoulder and on his heart the names of 
the people whose advocate and intercessor he was ; 



340 THE BEOOK BESOE. 

and thus he beautifully typified Jesus, our Great 
High Priest, who ever presents his saints before God 
in radiant glory, like stones most precious, bearing 
them upon his shoulder, the place of sustaining 
power, and upon his heart, the place of tender love. 

Whether the Urim and the Thummim were any- 
thing superadded to the breastplate, or were the 
precious stones themselves, is not certainly known. 
The probability is that they were identical. Nor is 
it determined how the oracular response was de- 
livered ; whether, as the rabbinical tradition asserts, 
by a supernatural light streaming forth from some 
of the component letters of the engraven names, 
which were then read as the answer ; or, w^hat is 
more likely, by an audible voice from God himself. 

David then called for Abiathar, who invested 
himself with the ephod, and presented himself before 
the Lord. He asked if he should pursue the troop ; 
and received the consolatory and explicit assurance, 
that he should surely overtake them, and without 
fail recover all. The response encouraged his faith 
and hope, and invigorated his wearied and depressed 
followers, who immediately set out in pursuit. The 
marauders might easily be guessed to be none other 
than the Amalekites, who had thus revenged the 
late slaughter of their people ; and the track of the 
retreating expedition might be inferred, with some- 
what of certainty, to have been in a southward 
direction, across the Brook Besor. 

No time was to be lost ; and, in hot haste, though 
already fatigued with a three days' march, the six 
hundred men press onward to the Brook. The waters 
were, at that time, probably, high ; and, from the 



THE DYING EGYPTIAN. 341 

impetuosity of the current, difficult and dangerous 
to ford, especially to men whose tired limbs were 
scarcely able to support them on solid ground. Two 
hundred men sank down on the grassy bank, de- 
claring with despondency that they w^ere too faint 
to proceed, and utterly incompetent to the task of 
fording the swollen torrent. To be deprived of one- 
third of his small force was, doubtless, a fresh trial 
of David's faith ; but promptitude in pursuit was of 
more consequence than numbers ; and the diminished 
band resolved to go on, trusting in the assurance of 
Jehovah, and leave their disabled companions to 
abide their return at the Besor. 

Scarcely had they crossed the Brook, when they 
fell in with a wretched man, lying on the ground, at 
the point of death. He had dragged himself to a 
low bush, whose scanty shadow scarcely defended 
him from the burning sun. His countenance and 
dress told him to be an EgyjDtian, whom, the day 
before, the Hebrew troop might, perhaps, have left 
to perish ; but affliction had now softened their 
hearts, and they ministered to this suffering stranger 
the relief of which he evidently stood in need. The 
restorative power of food and drink was soon apparent ; 
his spirit and strength revived ; and he was able to 
inform them that he had been the slave of an Ama- 
lekite, and had actually been engaged in the sack of 
Ziklag. Happening to fall sick on the retreat, his 
cruel master had left him on the road to die ; and 
during the three days that had since elapsed, he had 
neither eaten food nor drunk water. The mercy 
shown to this perishing stranger was not without 
reward ; for it was the means ordained by God for 



342 THE BROOK BESOR, 

the recovery of that which had been taken away. He 
agreed, on the promise of protection, to bring down 
the Hebrews to the Amalekite band, with whose 
place of intended repose he was well acquainted. 

How far the marauders had retreated we are not 
informed ; probably, counting on the whole available 
force of Israel being now engaged in the great conflict 
with the Philistines, at a distance, they were in no 
hurry to get home, but were taking their ease on 
these grassy plains. They were soon discovered, 
spread abroad upon the ground, eating and drinking, 
and making merry — rioting on the abundant spoil 
which they had taken, not only from Zildag, but 
from other parts of the country of the Philistines, 
and from the south of Judah, and other contiguous 
parts. The expedition seems to have not been ex- 
clusively one of revenge upon David, but to have 
been intended for general plunder, taking advantage 
of the absence of the men able to bear arms, now 
gathered to the^scene of war. God, in his gracious 
providence, had so ordered that none of the captives 
were injured ; David's two wives and the families of 
his followers were preserved, for cupidity had pre- 
vailed over revenge. In this we see the tenderness 
of God's fatherly chastisement ; He never inflicts one 
stroke upon his erring children more than sufficient 
to effect the purpose which He designs for them. 
The captivity of those dear to David had rebuked and 
humbled him, which was the object designed by 
Jehovah ; their violent death or irreparable dishonour 
might have crushed him. 

The unarmed and riotous band of Amalekites were 
incapable of resistance : the swords of the avenging 



THE RECOVERY. 343 

Israelites fell unsparingly ; the darkness of the night 
(for it was in the fading twilight that the angry band 
burst in upon their revelry) helped to increase the 
panic, as well as to conceal the numbers of the 
assailants ; many were slain upon the spot, and only 
the swiftness of their dromedaries saved four hundred 
young men from the fierce pursuit, which lasted 
through the whole of that night, and until the even- 
ing of the next day. 

Great was the joy, and many and cordial were the 
congratulations, and fervent, surely, the thanks- 
givings of the victorious band, when the battle and 
the pursuit w^ere done, as each man found his beloved 
wife, his sons, and his daughters, unhurt by the 
spoilers ; and when, according to the oracle of Jeho- 
vah, nothing of all their property was lacking. But 
they gained far more than had been taken away ; for 
all the booty that the marauders had plundered from 
the neighbouring countries fell into their hands. 

Thus does the Christian often prove the freeness 
of the grace of God. We may not sin that grace 
may abound : God forbid ! but a believer who has 
unwarily fallen into the snares of the adversary, often 
proves, after having been truly humbled, and re- 
stored to communion with the Lord, that he has 
gained by the transaction what he might never have 
otherwise attained. In one aspect, it is true, he can 
never regain his former position — he can never be 
exactlv the same man that he was before : the dis- 
honour done to the name of Christ, and the injury 
inflicted on the Church, remains, and can never be 
effaced. But, in another aspect, it is made a true 
and real blessing to him ; he has learned much, and 



344 THE BROOK BESOR. 

that iii the way it is most effectually learned — by 
experience. He has seen more of the craft and 
subtlety, the power and the malice of Satan, and 
more of the weakness, and treachery, and innate cor- 
ruption of his own heart. And this, though an 
humbling, is a profitable lesson ; for the more self is 
abased, and the more Christ is honoured, the better 
for time and for eternity. He feels, more deeply 
than before, the evil and bitterness of sin, and more 
than ever values the precious Blood of sprinkling, 
which cleanses from all its defilement as well as from 
all its guilt. His intercourse with God in Christ 
will be henceforth more humble, more grateful, more 
holy ; he will walk more circumspectly and more 
prayerfully. ISTor will the advantage be limited to 
his own soul ; he is qualified, by the exercises through 
w T hich he has passed, to minister more effectually to 
his brethren. He will now know how to warn the 
careless, how to sympathise with the tempted, how 
to yearn over poor backsliders, and how to comfort 
the trembling penitents, and cheer them to the race 
again. Peter would be better able to strengthen 
his brethren, and to feed the sheep and lambs of 
Jesus' fold, after his painful fall and happy restora- 
tion, than before ; and who can tell how much of the 
peculiar fatherly tenderness that marks his epistles, — 
his richness of consolation in the fiery trial through 
w 7 hich the Church was passing, — his earnest admo- 
nitions to vigilance against the wiles of the arch 
adversary, — may have been, under grace, owing to 
his having been in the furnace himself, and having 
proved the prowess of the foe ? 

Laden with spoil, David and his troop return to 



GKACE ABOUNDING. 345 

the Brook Besor, where they are joyfully saluted by 
their now recruited comrades. To the unkind and 
selfish suggestion of some in the band, whose hard 
hearts neither adversity nor prosperity had availed 
to soften, that those who had been unable to go to 
the battle should not partake of the spoil, David 
administers a temperate but decisive rebuke. He 
ascribes the success wholly to the Lord, and esta- 
blishes it as an ordinance in Israel, that all who 
bear part in any expedition shall share equally in the 
spoil, whether they actually engage in the conflict, 
or abide with the baggage. Sad would it be for us 
if only He who fought the fight and won the victory 
enjoyed the spoil ; but He joyfully makes his people, 
even the meanest and weakest, full partakers of all 
the gain and glory that result from his conflict. Let 
us imitate his example, and gladly share with our 
brethren whatever fruits of grace have been commu- 
nicated to us. 



GENESIS XX. XXVI. 

This Brook is memorable, also, for scenes and inci- 
dents far earlier than the time of David ; for the 
region through which its waters flowed was the 
ancient Gerar, where, in turn, both Abraham and 
Isaac sojourned; and the city of the same name, 
over which Abimelech reigned, was, in all probability, 
on its banks. The higher parts of the stream drained 
the waters of the hills, the sloping sides of which 
formed the Valley of Gerar, whither Isaac for peace 5 
sake resorted, when the jealousy of the Philistines con- 
strained him to leave their more immediate vicinity. 

15* 



34G THE BROOK BESOK. 

From several casual allusions in the holy Scrip- 
tures, we gather, that the Philistines who, for so long 
a period, . maintained possession of the south-west 
portion of Canaan, and gave the name of Palestine to 
the whole of that country, were an Egyptian colony. 
At the time of their migration, which was, probably, 
not long before the period of Abraham's sojourn in 
Gerar, they seem to have included two tribes — the 
Palishtim, and the Caphtorim, each of which names at 
length came to be used indiscriminately to designate 
this people ; though the former was, by far, the more 
common. From the manner in which the triumphal 
ode of the children of Israel alludes to them, after 
the crossing of the Red Sea, as well as from the reason 
assigned by God why he would not lead them by the 
shortest and most obvious route to Canaan, we infer 
that the Philistines had early acquired a renown for 
that martial prowess which they afterwards so well 
maintained, in the long contests for supremacy with 
the people of Israel. The latter made no attempts 
at maritime commerce or power until the reign of 
the magnificent Solomon ; at which time the power 
of the Philistine nation had been effectually broken 
by the successful career of David. Hence, the Is- 
raelites would never come into contact with them 
as a naval power ; and we should not have known 
that the Philistines were eminent on the sea, how- 
ever we might have judged it probable from their 
occupying the sea-board, and from the Mediterranean 
being called by their name (" the Sea of the Philis- 
tines," Exod. xxiii. 31), if the ancient Egyptian 
sculptures and paintings had not revealed the fact. 
Those interesting monuments, recently brought to 



THE PHILISTINES. 347 

light, represent naval as well as military battles, in 
which the conflicting parties are found, from the 
hieroglyphic inscriptions, to be the Egyptians and 
the Palishta ; while more commonly these two 
kindred nations are seen in close alliance, fighting 
against a common enemy. 

That portion of the land which we are now dis- 
cussing had been previously occupied by the Avim, — 
a people whom some are inclined to regard as a tribe 
of the Hivites ; but these had been overcome and 
destroyed by the superior energy, force, or skill of 
the immigrating Caphtorim. The latter seem to 
have been in a more polished condition than the 
Canaanitish tribes, which they doubtless owed to 
their Egyptian origin. Thus not only is the kingly 
government recognised, but hereditary succession 
seems to be established ; for Abimelech is the name 
of the king who reigned in Gerar in Isaac's days, as 
it had been that of him with whom Abraham 
sojourned nearly a hundred years before. Each of 
these monarchs is attended by a " captain of the 
host," — an officer whose function implies a high state 
of military organization. It is remarkable that the 
name of this officer v^as hereditary, no less than that 
of his master. Some suppose that both of the 
names, Abimelech and Phichol, were official, and not 
personal titles, (especially as the former signifies 
" My father, the king,") as Pharaoh was the constant 
title of the reigning Egyptian monarch. If this was 
so, it would no less indicate a cultivated state of 
society, and would afford another interesting affinity 
with Egyptian usages. 

The Philistines never appear to have contracted 



348 THE BROOK BESOR. 

friendships or alliances with, the nations of Canaan, 
"not even on those occasions when all the inhabi- 
tants of the land might be expected to unite as one 
man, in resistance to the invading Israelites, and when, 
in fact, powerful confederacies were formed for that 
purpose by the native princes. The Philistines were 
the most inveterate enemies which the Hebrews in 
Canaan ever had ; and yet in their wars we find them 
proceeding as a distinct people, with separate interests 
of their own, acting by themselves, and for them- 
selves, assisted by none, and never assisting others."* 

An interesting trait in the character of this people 
is their apparent freedom from the idolatry and vice 
which had debased the surrounding nations. The 
first Abimelech was evidently acquainted with the 
name and attributes of Jehovah, to whom he 
appealed, in the confidence of a worshipper, for the 
integrity of his own heart, and the general righteous- 
ness of his people ; and to this appeal God himself 
responded. His abhorrence of the sin of adultery, 
and his sense of the injury done him in laying 
temptation in his way, as also his kindness to 
Abraham, indicate that true religion yet lingered 
here ; while the appeal, " Lord, wilt thou slay also a 
righteous nation ?" alluding, no doubt, to the late 
dreadful overthrow of Sodom, implies a great differ- 
ence between his own people and the guilty Canaan- 
ites, and proves that he knew the Lord to be one who 
could not but do right. 

The intercourse oflsaac with the second Abimelech 
shows that this purity of faith and morals had not 
yet been corrupted. How long it remained, we are 

* Kitto's Hist, of Palestine, 85. 



Abraham's failure. 349 

not told ; but when, a few centuries afterwards, we 
again find this people on the stage of history, it is as 
the besotted worshippers of Dagon, the god with a 
fish's form, and as the cruel oppressors of Israel. 

It is remarkable that all the narratives connected 
with this river present us with signal failures of 
eminent saints, and humiliating rebukes of their 
unbelief, exceedingly similar to each other. We have 
already seen how the holy David was betrayed into 
distrust of Jehovah's kind and watchful care, and 
thence into prevarication and lying ; and w T e have 
seen "the end of the Lord" in reproving and 
recovering him. We have now to tell as sad a story 
of the " father of the faithful," the " friend of God." 

Abraham had had repeated promises from God of 
a numerous offspring, and latterly these assurances 
had been confirmed in solemn covenant, and the 
promised seed had been distinctly announced by 
name, and described as to be born of Sarah his 
wife. Yet when he came to sojourn in Gerar, he fell 
under the power of a sore temptation, and dishonoured, 
by distrusting, Jehovah. Ignorant that there was 
any fear of God, or sense of morality among the 
Philistines, he dreaded the effect which the extraor- 
dinary beauty of Sarah might produce upon lawless 
men ; and supposed that, if it were known that he 
was her husband, they would not scruple to slay him 
in order to seize her. He therefore besought her to 
represent herself as his sister, a relationship which 
did exist by the father's side, but not by the mother's. 
Thus he showed no concern for the chastity of his wife, 
which he the more exposed by his disingenuous arti- 
fice, but a slavish dread of death, which he was willing 



350 THE BROOK BESOR. 

to avoid at the expense of his wife's honour ; though 
one thought of the glorious promises which had 
been made to him would have effectually silenced 
his fears. It was probably the custom then, as now, 
among the pastoral tent-dwelling tribes, for the 
unmarried women to have great part of their faces 
exposed, while the married women were enveloped 
in a veil, which left none of the features visible. The 
consequence was that the king of the country sent 
and took the fair Hebrew for his harem. 

But Jehovah, who permitted this to happen foi 
the rebuke of his unbelieving servant, did not forget' 
his own faithfulness. Most precious is that truth : " If 
we believe not, yet He abideth faithful ; He cannot 
deny Himself." He effectually interposed his power 
in such a way as prevented the dishonor of Sarah, 
intimating in a night vision to the king the true 
relation that subsisted between her and the patriarch, 
and the danger which he had unwittingly incurred 
by seizing another's wife. Abimelech obeyed, and 
having cautioned his servants,- called for Abraham; 
and he who was called "the friend of God," who 
had been honoured to partake the counsels of 
Jehovah, and who was the heir of the promises, stood 
in the humbling position of hearing his sin reproved 
by one, whom he had supposed destitute of the fear 
of God. Thus sometimes, still, the natural conscience 
of unrenewed men is found more sensitive to sin than 
the sleeping conscience of careless Christians ; but it 
is greatly to the shame of the latter. Nor does the 
excuse wherewith Abraham attemts to palliate his 
evil, much mend the matter ; his whole conduct in 
this transaction is greatly to his disadvantage. It 



jehovah's faithfulness. 351 

is recorded, however, for our benefit ; inasmuch as it 
shows that even Abraham had not " whereof to 
glory " in his own works ; that he was not and could 
not be justified by these ; but only by faith upon 
the righteousness of God in Christ, whose " day " he 
saw afar off, and rejoiced to see it. 

To Sarah also, who had allowed herself to be 
enticed into a share of the guilt, the justly offended 
monarch administered a reproof, not the less severe 
because of the delicate manner in which it was con- 
veyed. " Behold, I have given to thy ' brother ' a 
thousand pieces of silver to purchase such a veil as 
shall indicate thy relation." 

Yet, though the Lord sometimes allows his people 
to stand reproved before the world, He will never- 
theless have it manifested that they sustain a cove- 
nant relation with Himself, and that He puts a 
special honour upon them, notwithstanding their 
failures. They are his, not because of their right- 
eousness, but because of his own grace ; and hence 
their failures in faith or obedience cannot alienate 
his love, though they bring down his chastisements. 
God would have Abimelech seek Abraham's prayers, 
and it was in immediate answer to his servant's 
intercessions, doubtless very humbling and profitable 
to his own soul, that the Lord removed those inflic- 
tions which the temporary possession of Sarah had 
brought upon the house of the Philistine king. 

The narrative of Isaac's failure is so similar in its 
details, that if it had not been recorded by Him who 
cannot err, we might have supposed it another version 
of the same transaction ; we, therefore, need not 
further allude to it, but shall follow this patriarch 



352 THE BROOK BESOR. 

from the actual dominions of Abimelech to the valley 
of Gerar, whither he was driven "by the jealousy of 
the Philistines, envious of his increasing prosperity. 
Though the land of Israel, when under the pecu- 
liar blessing of God, was a land of brooks of water, 
a land that drank of the rain of heaven, and must 
not be estimated by its present condition, when 
languishing under the threatened curse of drought 
and barrenness ; yet, even then, the rains were 
seasonal ; and we have pretty clear indication in the 
records of Abraham's and Isaac's biography, that, at 
least in the southern part of the country, there were 
no perennial streams. During, and for some time 
after, the rains of winter, the Valley of the Gerar was 
doubtless the bed of a copious stream, which, as 
already intimated, became known in the lower part 
of its course through the undulating plains as the 
Brook Besor ; and if this had continued to flow 
through the summer and autumn, abundant water 
for pastoral and agricultural purposes would have 
been supplied, and the labour of digging wells have 
been superseded. But this was not the case ; in 
both Abraham's and Isaac's sojourns in this region, 
the digging of wells forms marked events ; and the 
contentions of which they were the occasions show 
the importance of the water so obtained. Isaac had 
recently turned his attention to agriculture ; he had 
" sowed in that land, and received in the same vear 
an hundred-fold " — an enormous rate of increase, but 
" the Lord blessed him." It was therefore, in all 
probability, no less for the purposes of irrigation that 
he dug wells in the valley, than for the supply of 
his flocks and herds ; and, as he who bestows the 



THE VALLEY OF GERAR. 353 

needful labour and expense upon the formation of a 
well in an arid district, to a certain extent creates its 
fruitfulness, it is considered still in some parts (as in 
Persia, for instance) to confer a proprietorship in the 
land so fertilized. It was, doubtless, on this account 
that the Philistines took pains to fill up the exca- 
vated wells both of Abraham and of Isaac, or dis- 
puted the possession of them ; as fearing that the 
wealthy strangers might establish a claim upon the 
lands which they occupied, that might afterwards 
prove inconvenient.* 

In the dominions of Abimelech, there might be 
some justice in the rigid exclusiveness of the Philis- 
tines ; and Isaac readily departed at the suggestion 
of the king, and pitched his tent in the valley, which 
seems to have remained as yet unappropriated. 
Having re-opened the old wells which Abraham had 
digged, he gave to them the names which had been 
originally conferred on them by that patriarch. 
The custom of naming wells, no doubt, arose from 
the desire of establishing a right to the water ; and 
tradition would preserve the circumstances which 
induced the selection of the name, (for this was 
always significant,) much longer than if no distinctive 
appellation had been given. We are not told that 
the Philistines interfered with Isaac in these opera- 
tions ; perhaps they felt that the evidence of property 
which the revival of the old names gave was too 
strong to be openly resisted ; though they had n6t 
scrupled to fill up the wells secretly. But on his 
digging new ones, matters came to an open rupture. 
The servants of Isaac, digging in the valley 3 came 

* Dr. Kittu. 



354 THE BROOK BESOR. 

upon a fine spring, which roused the envy of the 
Philistine herdmen who were pasturing their flocks 
in the neighbourhood, and they disputed the pos- 
session of the water by force of arms. Another well 
was the subject of similar contention ; and Isaac 
meekly relinquished both, having first bestowed upon 
them the odious names of Esek and Sitnah, signify- 
ing strife and hatred. The Philistines in these trans- 
actions appear peculiarly unamiable, selfishly seeking 
to derive exclusive advantage from the labours of 
another — labours which they had not energy or skill 
to perform for themselves. But Isaac exemplifies 
the lovely principle of grace, giving up his right for 
the sake of peace ; content, although confessedly the 
stronger, " much mightier than they," to be imposed 
on, rather than resist evil, where only his convenience 
or interest was concerned : like his promised Seed, 
to whom he looked in anticipative faith, and of whom 
he was an illustrious type, he " restored that which 
he took not away." 



XVlI. 

THE EIYEK NILE. 



Topography. — Ancient Renown — The White and Blue Rivers — 
Valley of Egypt — Periodical Overflow — Consequent Fertility — 
Ancient Monuments — Early Civilization — Abram's Visit — Moses — 
The Plagues of Egypt — Subsequent History. 

We now again leave the goodly land of Canaan, to 
consider a river, mighty and renowned, indeed, but 
one whose name would be chiefly associated in the 
mind of Israel with memories and traditions of bitter 
captivity, the " iron furnace " of Egyptian bondage. 
The Nile is the great river of northern and eastern 
Africa, pursuing a course of more than 1,800 miles, 
in a direction nearly due north, from the centre of that 
great continent to the Mediterranean. The various 
sources of this river are yet involved in obscurity ; 
but they are believed to rise in lofty mountains to 
the north of the equator. The principal branches 
are called the White and the Blue rivers, which, after 
passing through Abyssinia, unite in the region of 
Sennaar. From this point it receives but one tribu- 



356 



THE RIVER NILE. 



taiy of any importance, until it falls into the Medi- 
terranean, by several diverging mouths, forming the 
Delta of Egypt. The greater part of its course lies 
through a narrow valley, rarely exceeding a few miles 
in width, hemmed in on both sides by low ranges of 
mountains. Some portions of even this narrow strip 




The Nile. 



are little better than the sandy desert around ; but 
other parts, especially the lower course of the river, 
forming the land of Egypt, possess an astonishing 
fertility, owing to the annual deposition of a rich 



VALLEY OF EGYPT. 357 

alluvial mud, by the overflow of the river in 
summer. 

After the waters have retired within their banks, 
which takes place in November, the agricultural pre- 
parations begin ; and the valley soon assumes the 
appearance of a delightful garden, covered with 
verdant crops, enamelled with flowers, and inter- 
spersed with groves of fruit-trees and luxuriant palms. 
The harvest is gathered in March and April, after 
which the heat becomes intense, and the suffocating 
khamseen, or south wind, sweeping along clouds of 
fine sand, and parching up all vegetation, makes the 
inhabitants look forward with eagerness to the rise 
of the Nile, the hope of the succeeding year. 

All through the valley, on both sides of the river, 
lie scattered, in astonishing profusion, the monuments 
of ancient Egypt ; — grand and imposing palaces, 
temples, sepulchres, and colossal statues, the remnant 
of the power and science of those early days, when 
Abram visited the land of Ham, and Joseph pre- 
served her from destruction. 

The name of the Nile does not occur in Scripture, 
(unless it be the " Sihor " of Jer. ii. 18 ;) but it is 
spoken of as " the river " more than twenty times, 
and much of the early history of God's chosen people 
is linked with it. To describe all the scenes associ- 
ated with it would be to transcribe nearly one-third 
of the books of Genesis and Exodus ; but the limits 
assigned to this little volume will not permit us to 
do more than enumerate some of the most prominent 
of the incidents with which it is connected. 

The researches of modern times, and the light 
reflected from the ancient monuments, prove that 



358 THE RIVER NILE. 

Egypt was a highly polished kingdom, renowned 
in arts and arms, when first visited by Abram. He 
stood upon the banks of the bine Nile, as it rolled 
through the majestic city of the Pharaohs ; and his 
descendant, Joseph, witnessed beside its waters the 
depth of adversity and the height of prosperity. In 
the flags and rushes that w T aved along its margin, the 
fair infant Moses was exposed in his reedy cradle, 
when the daughter of the monarch, approaching to 
bathe in its refreshing waters, felt tender compassion 
for the babe, and rescued him from the obscene 
crocodiles. On its brink stood the prophet, when, 
having come to years, and preferred the afflictions of 
the people of God to the honours of the Egyptian 
court, his wonder-working rod brought plagues upon 
the land of Ham. The frogs came swarming from 
the river's depths ; and, worse than all, the river 
itself — whose waters were esteemed preferable to all 
others, the source of fertility and wealth — became 
blood ; and that which had been honoured as a god, 
became abominable and loathsome to its admirers ! 
The great contest between Jehovah and the gods 
of Egypt took place upon the banks of Nile, which 
ended in the shameful discomfiture of the latter, and 
the triumphant avenging and delivering of the 
enslaved house of Israel. 

Varied were the scenes which, in after ages, were 
enacted beside the mighty " father of waters." The 
ravages of the desolator, Cambyses, — the silken-sailed 
progresses of the voluptuous Cleopatra, — the confla- 
gration of the glorious library of the Ptolemies,- — 
the disastrous expedition of Napoleon, — the bloody 
massacre of the Mamlooks, — the rolling Nile has 



CONCLUSION. 359 

successively witnessed ; and through all has seen the 
gradual, but sure, degradation of its possessors, from 
the very summit of civilization, opulence, and power, 
until Egypt has become — what divine prophecy long 
ages ago declared it should be — "the basest of 
kingdoms." 



Thus we have briefly sketched the history of those 
Rivers and Streams, whose names are embalmed in 
the narratives of Holy Writ. Many events of high 
moment, many scenes of interest, many examples of 
human failure and of divine grace, we have seen 
connected with them, and we have surely learned 
from their history some lessons of heavenly wisdom, 
such as the Word of God alone can teach. There is 
one other " Sacred Stream ;" one which the inquisi- 
tive traveller has never looked upon, but whose 
crystal waters, seen in vision, once gladdened the 
anointed eye of the beloved disciple in Patmos ; and 
myriads of happy saints shall, by and by, " walk in 
white " upon its pleasant banks. It is the " River, 
the streams whereof shall make glad the city of 
God ;" it is the " pure River of water of life, clear 
as crystal, proceeding out of the Throne of God and 
of the Lamb." Not on earth does it flow ; sin-ridden 
and polluted as they are, the sunniest, fairest lands 
of earth would be wholly ungenial to its purity. It 
flows through the golden streets of the " City that 
hath foundations," the New Jerusalem, yet hidden 
with God, but shortly to be revealed. The tree of 
life, that once grew in the midst of Eden, soon had 



ft 






360 



CONCLUSION. 



to be withdrawn from earth ; but it was to be trans- 
planted by this heavenly River, where it flourishes 
abundantly " on either side ;" and those who shall be 
hereafter privileged to walk there, shall pluck the 
fruit of the tree of life, and drink of that river of 
pleasures, and live for ever. Nothing but joy be- 
longs to that blissful scene, and eternity is stamped 
upon all. 

May it be the favoured lot of every reader of these 
pages, as well as of their author, to find an everlasting 
home by those " living fountains of waters," " in 
the midst of the Paradise of God !" 



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